Posters

Pre-treatment effect of betamethasone 0.1% on pain relief following photorefractive keratectomy

Poster Details

First Author: M.Shoja IRAN

Co Author(s):    S. Rahmatkha   S. Salimpour   M. Mahdavi              

Abstract Details

Purpose:

One of the most important complications after photorefractive keratectomy is pain that is also treated with oral analgesics in addition to non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) eye drops and corticosteroids. For desirable reduction of the pain due to inflammation after photorefractive keratectomy, drugs should be used before exposure to inflammatory stimuli. Cyclooxygenase and phospholipase inhibitors exhibit good response if used before the onset of inflammation. In this study, corticosteroid eye drops (betamethasone 0.1%)was used as a safe medication before surgery to investigate its preventive or reducing effect on postoperative pain compared with a placebo.

Setting:

Academic practice, from January 20014 t0 jajnuary 2015 in Shahid Sadoughi medical University, Yazd, Iran

Methods:

in a randomized, double-blind clinical trial, A single drop of betamethasone 0.1% in one eye and placebo drop in the other eye was administrated every hour starting three hours before surgery. In the first and second days after surgery, 0 to 10 verbal numerical rating scales was used to evaluate pain. Also the extent and severity of photophobia, irritation, foreign body sensation and tearing of the eyes were recorded in the questionnaire by assigning scores ranging from 0 to 3 in which 0, 1, 2, and 3 represent the severity as no symptoms, low, medium, and high, respectively.

Results:

The study was conducted on 60 patients (120 eyes).The mean age of patients was 28.23± 6.19 years the mean score of pain intensity on the first day after showed that the pain score is significantly lower in patients treated with betamethasone than those with placebo (p=0.002), but On the second day there was no significant differences in pain score between groups (p=0.055).The score of eye irritation, foreign body sensation and tearing in the betamethasone group was significantly lower than those in placebo group But there is no significant difference in the severity scores of photophobia in groups.

Conclusions:

It can be claimed that based on these results, the use of preoperative betamethasone has a beneficial effect on pain reduction after PRK. Although, beneficial effects of NSAID drops in reducing pain after PRK surgery has been reported before, due to the main side effects of these drugs such as delay in re–epithelialization, corneal sterile infiltration and corneal melting, many surgeons are not willing to prescribe these medicine after the surgery. Achieving these results, in which betamethasone can reduce the pain after PRK surgery provide the possibility of using it as a safe medication before surgery.

Financial Disclosure:

NONE