Posters

The availability of pre-refractive data for patients undergoing cataract surgery

Poster Details

First Author: P.Mandal UK

Co Author(s):    T. Jenyon   A. Bansal                 

Abstract Details

Purpose:

The popularity of laser refractive surgery continues to rise and with it the proportion of patients seeking cataract surgery who have undergone previous refractive procedures.  Traditional formulae are known to be inaccurate in calculating intraocular lens (IOL) power after refractive surgery.  This is in part due to the altered relationship between anterior and posterior corneal curvature.  Specific formulae have been developed to overcome this problem, however many require pre-refractive data. We analysed all patients presenting for cataract surgery at our unit who had undergone previous laser refractive surgery and assessed the proportion that could provide their pre-refractive data.

Setting:

Eye Unit, University Hospital of Coventry and Warwickshire, UK.

Methods:

Retrospective review of all patients between 2010 and 2018 with a history of refractive surgery who then went on to undergo cataract surgery.

Results:

47 eyes were identified as having cataract surgery that had undergone previous laser refractive surgery.  Of these notes were available for 33 eyes from 26 patients. The majority (69%) knew in which year they had had their laser refractive surgery. Despite being asked for this at multiple visits and knowing that it could improve their post cataract surgery outcome, only 34% could provide us with details of their pre-laser refraction as part of their cataract surgery work up.

Conclusions:

Only a third of patients could provide their pre-refractive data despite knowing that this could improve their outcome. This suggests that formulae reliant on this data are obsolete for a majority of patients. IOL power calculations that don't rely on historical data are therefore required in most cases. The average time from laser refractive surgery to cataract surgery in this group of patients was 14 years (range 6-23 years), meaning a significant period of time has passed to misplace paper work. A number of our patients had laser refractive surgery abroad, which increased the probability no paper work was available.

Financial Disclosure:

None