Vitreo-Retinal Surgery Fellowship review @ LV Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad

Duration= 3 yrs

They have 4 main campuses (+1 new campus started recently but not taking fellows) so the number of fellows taken in each campus varies, usually 2-4 VR fellows per campus

4 main campuses are

• KAR campus (the main one)

• Vijayawada campus

• Vishakapatnam campus

• Bhubaneshwar campus

Training is similar in all campuses. Earlier, the management used to decide which fellow to allot to which campus... but from 2026, they're allowing new fellows to decide their campus of choice.

Selection- exam + interview

Structure of fellowship programs in LVP

• First 9 months- cataract training phase, they train you to be fully competent so that you can handle even advanced cases.

  For some fellows, this phase can even be as short as 4 months (esp if they're already surgically proficient) after which they are sent directly to the secondary centre. So the remaining 5 months of such fellows will be added to their last phase (speciality phase) which is originally 15 months long but now becomes 20 months for these fellows.

• Next 1 year is spent at one of their secondary centres where you manage it entirely and do cataracts the whole year.

  This 1 year of service in secondary centre is fixed, it cannot be reduced like the first phase. Their secondary centres are high volume centres and see crowds of patients every day.

• The last 15 months is when you enter your speciality. After finishing your secondary centre service, you come back to your parent campus and start VR training. You also continue to operate cataracts through this phase.

Academics- there are regular classes, happens in the main KAR campus, fellows in other campuses attend it online.

OP is very hectic, you see a wide variety of cases

Good surgical hands-on in all kinds of retina cases, majority of their consultants are usually fellows who join back after finishing, they are your primary trainers, towards the end you get to operate many retina cases independently.

ROP exposure is good, you get lasers and intravit injections in ROP babies also.

VR dept on non-OT days may finish by 8 pm but on OT days work can go on as late as 1 am at night, even later on some days because they keep operating emergencies through the night as they come.

LVP doesn't hold camps- all their patients come directly or from their many secondary centres.

Stipend is 50k for 1st 2 years, 70k for 3rd yr.

So to summarize, their VR program is

- Cataract training in first 9 months (can be shorter for some fellows)

- Then 1 year of service at their secondary centre 

- Then 15 months (or more, if the first phase was shorter than 9 months) of formal VR training 

Some rules and regulations in LVP

• You have to punch in before 7 am every day. If you punch in at 7 or even 7.01 you will be marked absent for whole day.

  
  

• Similarly you have to punch out, if you don't, then also you are marked absent for that day.

  
  

• You are given 19 days of leave every year but if your leave exceeds 19 days then you will work extra days to finish your fellowship- for every 1 day extra of leave taken, you have to work 2 days in return. 

  For eg if your leave has exceeded 5 days, you will have to work 10 days past your fellowship due date to complete it.

So main takeaway point here- never ever ever forget to punch in before 7 am daily.

Drop out rate in LVP is high, there are reports of fellows in diff depts quitting fellowshp midway.

No penalty for leaving fellowship in between- no huge fines imposed or return of stipends demanded. But you do get blacklisted. You can never apply to LVP again if you leave midway.

• Non-vegetarian food strictly not allowed at all in campus.