Senior Consultant & Managing Partner, Chakrabarti Eye Care Centre, Trivandrum
I am a senior consultant and managing partner at the Chakrabarti Eye Care Centre, Trivandrum. I completed my graduation and post-graduation from the prestigious Jawaharlal Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER), Pondicherry, in 1990. I was a fellow in IOL and Anterior Segment Microsurgery at the Aravind Eye Hospital, Madurai (1991–1992), and continued my tenure there as a Senior Consultant. I have also worked as assistant professor and then associate professor affiliated with the Dr. M.G.R. Medical University. After an eight-year stint at Aravind Eye Hospital, Madurai, I relocated to Kerala and started my tertiary care referral centre in Trivandrum.
My areas of special interest in Ophthalmology are primarily cataract surgery, with an abiding interest in Glaucoma. I lecture extensively and give live surgery demonstrations in various parts of India. I am a reviewer for the Journal of Cataract and Refractive Surgery, and an International Coordinator for the All India Ophthalmological Society (AIOS).
I have been a phaco surgeon for close to two decades, with a main focus on performing phacoemulsification in challenging situations. I have numerous presentations and videos on these extremely complex situations — my video on phaco in white mature cataracts won a BPOS award almost two decades ago. I am especially interested in cataract surgery in eyes with posterior segment disease, and have conducted courses on this topic at the AIOS, ASCRS, ESCRS, AAO and APAO.
I was one of the first surgeons to popularize Manual Non-Phaco Small Incision Cataract Surgery (Manual SICS) in South India, performing the first live surgery demonstration of the technique in the region at the Annual Meeting of the Tamil Nadu Ophthalmic Association in 1994 at Madurai, and subsequently at conferences across India. I regularly participate as an instructor in SICS/ECCE skills-transfer programmes at the AAO and ASCRS, and teach an instruction course on the topic at the AAO.
A teacher par excellence — or so my students tell me — I have personally trained over 500 ophthalmologists on various aspects of cataract surgery. I have conducted instruction courses as chief instructor, and participated as co-instructor, on a regular basis at some of the most prestigious meetings in the field — the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons (ASCRS), the European Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons (ESCRS), the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO), the Asia Pacific Academy of Ophthalmology (APAO), and the All India Ophthalmological Society (AIOS).
I have produced teaching videos on various aspects of phacoemulsification and its complications, widely used by ophthalmologists in India and abroad. I have also edited a textbook, “Cataract Surgery in the Diseased Eye” (Jaypee, 2013), and a second textbook, “Posterior Capsular Rupture” (Springer).
I have received Achievement Awards from both the AAO and APAO, along with numerous named oration awards and best-paper-of-the-session honours. I am an executive committee member of the Intraocular Implant and Refractive Society of India (IIRSI). I served AIOS as a member of the scientific committee for six years (two terms), and served my own state society as chairman of its scientific committee.
