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Clear Corneal Cataract Surgery and Topical Anesthesia. By Fine IH, Fichman RA, Grabow HB. Thorofare, NJ: Slack Ine; 1993; 175 pp. $65.00.
This monograph is more than an abbreviated surgical atlas. It can legitimately be argued that it is symbolic of the American cataract surgeon of the 1990s.
Let me start this argument with the beginning of the book. Instead of the traditional preface, written by a respected outside authority, the authors describe themselves. Let me quote. "Howard Fine, MD, is the first American surgeon to report the use of clear corneal incisions in modern small-incision cataract surgery. Richard A. Fichman, MD, is founder and director of the Fichman Eye Center in Manchester, Connecticut. Dr Fichman is the first ophthalmologist to report the use of topical anesthesia in modern phacoemulsification cataract surgery. Harry B. Grabow, MD, is one of the first surgeons in Florida to perform the no stitch/no patch technique of cataract extraction and clear-corneal technique under topical anesthesia and is the first surgeon to implant foldable toric IOLs in the eastern United States."
Note that each author describes himself in terms of being first at something. Let's look at the concept of...