For the past several years, a group of talented and dedicated ophthalmologists, under the direction of James P. Dunn, MD, and Paul D. Langer, MD, FACS, have undertaken a huge effort to explain and illustrate more than 75 of the most common surgical procedures performed by ophthalmologists and to describe the skills needed for surgical proficiency. Their collaboration has resulted in Basic Techniques of Ophthalmic Surgery, the book you have before you today.
This book is composed of step-by-step procedures of the most commonly performed surgeries performed by ophthalmologists. The chapters are not meant to be exhaustive. The reader should recognize that even the simplest surgery has as many variations, large or small, as there are surgeons who perform it. With cataract surgery, for example, numerous machine settings may be used in phacoemulsification. Even such apparently basic steps as preoperative dilation, prepping and draping (including the use of povidone-iodine on the skin and eye), or postoperative care may vary widely among surgeons. To try to list them all would not only be impractical, it would distract the reader from the fundamental purpose of the book.