Intraoperative complication rates in cataract surgery performed by women and men surgeons in a tertiary eye care centre in Hungary

Abstract Purpose The aim of our study was to compare intraoperative complication rates in cataract surgeries performed by women and men surgeons and to analyse the possible impact of surgeon–patient gender difference on intraoperative complication rates in a tertiary eye care centre in Hungary. Materials/Methods This retrospective study looked at cases of cataract surgery involving phacoemulsification performed between January and December 2019. There were no exclusion criteria. In each case, patient demographics, patient clinical history, surgeon gender, case complexity, and operative details were reviewed. Primary outcomes included intraoperative complication rates. Results A total of 2,156 operations were included in the study, 1,295 (60.1%) of which were performed by men surgeons and 861 (39.9%) by women surgeons. The overall complication rate was 4.7% ( n = 101). There was no significant difference ( P = 0.728) in the intraoperative complication rate between the surgeries performed by women ( n = 42, 4.9%) and men ( n = 59, 4.6%) in either the simple ( P = 0.214) or the complex ( P = 0.508) cataract cases. Intraoperative complication rates were analysed in the two surgeon gender groups among both women and men patients. No significant difference was found in any of the compared groups. Conclusions Intraoperative complication rates were similar in the surgeries performed by women and men specialists. Our study showed that neither surgeon–patient gender difference nor surgeon–patient gender concordance had a significant impact on complication rates during phacoemulsification cataract surgery.