Use of beta-blockers in microsurgery by ophthalmology resident physicians in Curitiba, Brazil

Session Details

Session Title: Presented Poster Session: New & Interesting II

Venue: Poster Village: Pod 3

First Author: : F.Erthal BRAZIL

Co Author(s): :    H. Moreira   F. Branco   R. Omoto   G. Tesser              

Abstract Details

Purpose:

The human eye is an extremely delicate organ. During surgical learning, residents of ophthalmology are faced with the difficulty of intervening in structures of small dimensions, fragile and with close anatomical relationships. Tremor is a movement of parts of the body in a rhythmic, involuntary and oscillatory way. Beta blockers act by decreasing adrenergic activity and are first-line drugs in the treatment of essential tremor. Our objective in this study was to identify the prevalence of beta-blocker users among residents of ophthalmology in order to reduce hand tremor during ophthalmologic surgeries.

Setting:

Paraná Eye Hospital - Curitiba - PR - Brazil.

Methods:

A survey was conducted from August to September 2018, through the Survio platform (www.survio.com). A questionnaire containing 12 questions addressing the year of residence, age, gender, learning difficulties in microsurgery, presence of essential tremor, use of beta-blockers and their subjective effect on residents' performance were applied. The link was sent through a messaging application to all physicians attending ophthalmology residency in 5 services in the city of Curitiba-PR. All responses were based on subjective assessments of the participants themselves and with anonymity.

Results:

Thirty seven residents of ophthalmology, from 5 different services, answered the questionnaire. Six residents (16,2%) use or have already used beta-blocker and 10 (27%) already raised the possibility of making use of. Among the users, 5 are from the last year and represent 45.45% of the total number of residents of the last year who answered the survey. All users reported a subjective improvement of the tremor. The only beta-blocker used was propranolol, and the dose ranged from 10 to 40mg.

Conclusions:

In the ophthalmology services of Curitiba (Brazil) and metropolitan region the use of beta-blockers in different hospitals with the purpose of reducing tremors, predominantly in the residents of the last year was registered. Most use is considered frequent (between 50-75% of surgeries). Most of them observed significant subjective improvement of the tremors. Further studies could provide a better picture of the prevalence of beta-blockers among residents of ophthalmology.

Financial Disclosure:

None