Vitreo-Retinal Surgery Fellowship review@ Sankara Netralaya (SN), Chennai

Duration 2 yrs and 2.5 yrs

Selection- written exam (true/false pattern) followed by interview next day 

They have two kinds of VR fellowship-

- Clinical Fellowship (2 yrs of pure VR)

- Clinical cum Research fellowship (first 6 months doing a study/project followed by 2 yrs of VR.. of course you'll be involved with the study over the course of your fellowship even after the first 6 months)

You can choose which one you want to take, not compelled to go for research if you say you are not interested.

2 fellows taken for Clinical fellowship, 3 taken for Clinical cum Research but numbers can be variable 

Fellows taken every 6 months.

No exit exam as of now but there are talks they might have an unofficial one from 2026 onwards.

Stipend 55k (no caution deposit)

No cataract training included 

You are started on surgeries from first month itself, you get steps in the smaller procedures like port making or SO removal etc 

You are posted every month in different depts like 1 month in Medical Retina, 1 month in Uvea, 1 month in Oncology, 1 month in diagnostics etc

They have 18-19 consultants so every month, you are under a different consultant 

You get steps for all retina cases

You also see OP but not allowed to dispose pts independently initially 

You get to do independent cases in the last 6 months of fellowship when you become an SR.. at that point, you are under a mentor and you see OP pts in your name and dispose them and also operate cases in your name (with the mentor overseeing as required)

Medical retina exposure is good, you get retinal lasers and intravit injections in the 1 month you are posted there 

OP exposure is good, you see every kind of retina case here 

ROP cases are relatively less, it's mostly SRs who go with the consultants to pediatric hospitals and NICUs who get to do lasers, otherwise as a fellow your ROP exposure is mostly restricted to OTs when babies with stage 4/5 ROP are posted for EUA and then you get to see the fundus and learn screening and maybe do few lasers 

Oncology exposure is good

Work timings officially 8- 5 pm but often goes late depending on pt load and when OT finishes  

Peripheral centre duties++ where you are posted to a centre in Andhra called Shri City for 2-3 days (over weekend) at a time in a month where you manage ophthal cases of all specialities 

You have 4-5 duties per month of night calls and ward calls (also involves enucleation duties)

1 Sunday duty in a month- 7am -7pm duty You also get a public holiday on call duty- again 7am - 7 pm

No camp duties 

On call- you have night duties in the first 6 months of joining... but you hardly get any emergencies

Academics- once weekly classes 

Very hectic fellowship but you get very good exposure to all cases and also get to do independent cases in the last 6 months (based on your mentor's discretion).