Vitreo-Retinal Surgery Fellowship review @ Sankara Eye Hospital, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu

I did VR from Sankara Coimbatore.

We were taken one fellow at a time in my time. The routine is in the morning you come early and see general op and finish all your pts as fast as possible because when Prabhu sir (main VR surgeon) arrives, he'll finish all his private patients and then go straight to OT and start operating. 

So if you haven't managed to clear a good chunk of OP by then, good luck, you would miss chances to operate since not only was Prabhu sir good at retinal surgery but also incredibly fast. 

He usually sped through retinal surgeries because he was more fond of doing the phaco cases that came after... which is why he was happy to give you steps and cases for retina pts when you went to OT. (Btw sir's phacos were excellent.) 

He never hogged retinal surgeries for himself, that way it was great working with him since I got to do many types of retinal cases and got good hands-on. Sir is cool headed so not a hard man to work with.

There are no classes or academics and OP is left entirely to you so you have to see all cases and dispose. You can discuss those you have doubts about with Prabhu sir and retain them if needed for Sir to see after OT. Since sir is a fast surgeon, we usually finished our days in good time and got free by 6. Which is unheard of in most VR fellowships since they are always the last of fellows to leave the hospital.

Among the Sankaras, their Guntur branch (Andhra Pradesh) is the best when it comes to hands-on and academics. Everything is structured there but it's very competitive to get in. They don't take everyone. Plus their working hours are long. Only Coimbatore where I worked did we finish by 6, nowhere else in any of their other branches could that happen.

I heard that Sankara (in general) has increased fellow intake now, taking fellows every 6 months so I'm not sure how it's going now. When I did it, it was just one fellow with Prabhu sir for entire year and that was good in terms of exposure and hands-on you got.