Simulation Surgical Teaching in Ophthalmology.

“Practice makes perfect” is an age-old idiom few can disagree with. Yet in ophthalmic surgical teaching, practice has not had the emphasis it has in other motor skillebased disciplines. Even a well-stocked wet laboratory likely does not have a large quantity of eyes available for practicing, limiting robustness of skill development that could be achieved by frequent repetition. The commonly used pig eyes have only superficially similar surgical characteristics to human eyes, reducing the benefit of the time invested. The lack of corneal clarity is a common problem of both human cadaver and animal eyes. Some maneuvers may be difficult to practice outside of the operating room, such as administering regional ophthalmic anesthesia: peribulbar or retrobulbar blocks. As a result, trainees usually begin surgery on patients before skills are well developed. In contrast, disciplines requiring a degree of motor skill proficiency emphasize significantly more practice and rehearsal. In aviation, airline pilots spend a great deal of time using simulators to acquire robust and mature skills necessary to safely fly an airplane. Athletes and musicians spend an