Session Title: Cataract I
Session Date/Time: Friday 03/02/2012 | 10:30-12:30
Paper Time: 10:48
Venue: Hall 1
First Author: : G.Lofoco ITALY
Co Author(s): :
Purpose:
To investigate if second eye cataract surgery under topical anesthesia is more painful than surgery on the first eye; if pain experienced during the procedure on the first eye may predict the pain of the second procedure; if patients' cooperation is different between the first and the second eye procedure.
Setting:
Divisione Oculistica, Ospedale San Pietro – Fatebenefratelli, Rome, Italy
Methods:
Seventy-three consecutive patients undergoing bilateral non-simultaneous cataract surgery were prospectively included in the study. Surgical technique was sutureless clear corneal phacoemulsification under topical anesthesia. Immediately after surgery every patient graded the pain experienced using a Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) from 0 (no pain) to 10 (unbearable pain). At the end of each procedure the surgeon graded patients' cooperation using a 4 point scale. RESULTS Mean VAS score was 2.35 (sd 2.63) for the first eye and 2.89 (sd 2.93) for the second eye. Such difference was not statistically significant (p = 0.1777, Wilcoxon test). The correlation between the VAS score of the first and that of the second procedure was statistically significant (r = 0.5514, P < 0.0001, Spearman rank correlation). Patients' cooperation was 2.64 (sd 0.63) during the first procedure and 2.52 (sd 0.79) during the second procedure; this difference was not statistically significant (P=0.1769, Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed-ranks test).
Conclusions:
After uneventful cataract surgery under topical anesthesia pain experienced and cooperation did not differ between first and second eye procedures. A correlation was found between pain scores of the first and the second eye procedures.
Financial Disclosure:
No
