Patients' and Surgeon's Perspectives of Second Eye Phacoemulsification Under Augmented Topical Anaesthesia

Abstract

Purpose: To compare patient's comfort score, pain perception score as perceived by the patient; and patient's anxiety score, cooperation score assessed by the operating surgeon; and duration of surgery of the second eye phacoemulsification under augmented topical anaesthesia with the first eye surgery performed using the same technique, before. Secondary objectives were to find out if these parameters are associated with patient's age, gender, education, or occupation and the time gap between the two-eye surgeries. Settings and Design: Prospective, cross-sectional observational study conducted in a tertiary care hospital for three months duration. Methods and Material: 82 patients with visually significant cataract were included in the study. Group A (n = 45) patients underwent phacoemulsification under augmented topical anaesthesia of the first eye and Group B (n = 37) underwent phacoemulsification of the second eye, who had already undergone the first eye surgery using the same technique. Results: Mean patient's comfort score 4.595 ± 0.4977, cooperation score 4.784 ± 0.4173, and duration of surgery 10.892 ± 1.2424 were higher in group B; whereas pain perception score 0.756 ± 0.7733 and patient's anxiety score 0.378 ± 0.5756 were higher in group A when the groups were compared. Conclusions: There were no statistically significant differences in patients' comfort, pain perception score, patient's anxiety, cooperation score, and duration of surgery of the first and the second eye phacoemulsification under augmented topical anaesthesia. These scores were not significantly associated with age, gender, education, occupation, or the time gap between the first and the second eye surgeries.