Cataract follow-up Is a hospital clinic visit really necessary?

Poster Details

First Author: B.Dave UK

Co Author(s):    S. Perera   A. Stribblehill   A. Holliday        

Abstract Details

Purpose:

To ascertain the safety and efficacy of a telephone interview by a nurse instead of a hospital visit for uncomplicated post cataract patients.

Setting:

East Surrey Hospital, Surrey, England, UK.

Methods:

100 consecutive patients who had uncomplicated cataract extractions were phoned by a nurse following surgery. Concerns and symptoms reported by the patients and advice given by the nurse was recorded. Clinic notes were reviewed for attendance at the eye clinic/casualty for cataract extraction related symptoms. Where the patients had attended, the symptoms, and diagnosis was assessed against the nurses advice.

Results:

23% of patients contacted reported symptoms. Of these 7% were advised to attend the casualty clinic, while the rest were reassured. None of the patients reassured attended the hospital with a cataract extraction related symptom. The advice given to the 7% to attend the hospital was deemed appropriate. 20 of the 23 patients noted their symptoms within three days of the operation.

Conclusions:

This small study shows that a nurse led telephone consultation is a safe and effective way of post-op assessment following uncomplicated cataract surgery and could significantly reduce the pressure on clinic appointments. However, as ‘silent’ signs like post-operative pressure spikes can be missed careful patient selection is needed. FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE?: No