Posters

Can a set of questions after a routine cataract surgery predict unexpected findings and avoid an unnecessary follow-up visit?

Poster Details

First Author: I.Pasiskeviciute LITHUANIA

Co Author(s):    A. Varoniukaite   P. Pajeda   R. Zemaitiene   D. Zaliuniene   A. Grzybowski        

Abstract Details

Purpose:

To evaluate whether a set of questions after a routine cataract surgery can predict unexpected findings and avoid an unnecessary follow-up visit.

Setting:

Department of Ophthalmology, Medical Academy, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences.

Methods:

Single-centre, prospective, cohort study included 135 routine cataract surgery cases of 2 experienced surgeons between November 2019 and February 2020. Inclusion criteria: unremarkable postoperative day one follow-up examination. A set of 7 questions regarding complaints with positive or negative answers was presented at second follow-up visit (PV2) - one week (mean 8.69±1.76 days) after the surgery. The outcome measures were incidence of unexpected management changes (UMCs) at PV2 visit (change or addition from a prescribed postoperative drop plan, extra procedures, an urgent referral to an ophthalmologist), and UMCs associations with the answers of a question set.

Results:

86.7% of patients had no complaints about postoperative ocular status and answered with negative answers, 13.3% reported 1 or more complaint (positive answer), the most common one was dissatisfaction with postoperative visual acuity (4.4%, 6 cases). UMCs were observed only in patients without complaints (negative answers).The prevalence of UMCs at PV2 was 1.5% (2 cases) of which 0.7% (1 case) was prolonged antibiotic prescription due to conjunctivitis and 0.7% (1 case) was addition of IOP lowering medication. None of the complaints (positive answers) at PV2 were associated with the incidence of UMCs (p more than 0.05).

Conclusions:

There were no associations determined of UMCs with positive answers to the questions. The prediction of UMCs incidence based on the positive answers was not obtained. Thus, we cannot exclude the necessity of a postoperative week one follow-up visit.

Financial Disclosure:

None