Abstract :
Background: As the cataract surgery has taken the quantum leaps, so does the advancements in various anaesthetic techniques, aiming to provide a safer, painless and comfortable surgery. Topical anaesthesia is a less invasive anaesthetic option which provides adequate analgesia with wide margin of safety. We aimed to evaluate the efficacy of topical anaesthesia as a routine in a standard phacoemulsification surgery.
Materials and Methods: A total of 200 patients scheduled for routine phacoemulsification were enrolled in a prospective, non-randomized comparative clinical study. Patients were then distributed to either topical anaesthesia group (TA) or peribulbar anaesthesia group (PA) to evaluate for patient and surgeon satisfaction, and intraoperative complications.
Observations: The study groups were comparable demographically. Pain scores were higher during late stages of surgery in TA (p
Conclusion: Despite higher per-operative pain perception most of the patients describe their surgical experience with topical anaesthesia as satisfactory. In view of its minimally invasive nature, topical anaesthesia is a safer alternative to peribulbar anaesthesia practically avoiding all block related complications especially in at risk eyes, and thus can be safely administered as a routine in phacoemulsification surgery.
Keyword :
Topical, Peribulbar, Phacoemulsification, Pain, Satisfaction.