Kefyalew Regassa Gobena, MD, the ASCRS Foundation’s resident ophthalmologist at its Robert M. Sinskey Pediatric Eyecare Clinic in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, recently completed 3-months of foundation-funded phacoemulsication training under Abhay Vasavada, MD, at the Raghudeep Eye Clinic in Ahmedabad, India.

Dr. Kefyalew, who prior to the training had been performing ECCE and small incision cataract surgery on his patients, will now begin offering limited phacoemulsification surgery using the clinic’s full complement of donated equipment .

Dr. Vasavada reported that he found Dr. Kefyalew “very pleasant and eager to learn not only phaco cataract management, but also other aspects related to the smooth functioning of a clinic.” According to Dr. Vasavada, “training focused on performing the capsulotomy, nucleus sculpting, chopping, cortex removal and IOL implantation, as well as theoretical phacodynamics and machine parameters.” Dr. Kefyalew also routinely performed pre- and post-operative patient evaluation including fundus examination, keratometry and biometry.

Pranev Amin, MD, who studied under both Dr. Vasavada and Robert Sinskey, MD, will visit the in clinic in June 2007 to provide follow-on training and assist Dr. Kefyalew with this first phaco cases. Additional follow-on training will be provided by the University of Utah’s Geoff Tabin, MD, during a visit in October.

The Sinskey Clinic remained open during Dr. Kefyalew’s absence with a contract ophthalmologist seeing patients daily. The clinic currently sees about 350 patients per month.