Knowledge of patients’ visual experience during cataract surgery: a survey of eye doctors in Karachi, Pakistan

BMC Ophthalmology

Research Article

Khabir Ahmad¹  Tanveer Anjum Chaudhry¹  Mohammad Zain Tauqir¹  Sehreen Mumtaz¹ 

[1] Section of Ophthalmology, Department of Surgery, Aga Khan University, P.O. Box 3500, Stadium Road, 74800, Karachi, Pakistan;

关键词: Regional Anaesthesia;    Visual Experience;    Medical Officer;    Visual Sensation;    Topical Anaesthesia;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2415-12-55

 received in 2012-05-14, accepted in 2012-10-27,  发布年份 2012

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundSeveral recent studies have recommended that ophthalmologists must be aware of the visual sensations (and their associated anxiety/fear) experienced by patients undergoing cataract surgery. We assessed the knowledge of a group of eye doctors in Pakistan regarding these phenomena.MethodsThis was a cross-sectional survey. Eye doctors (ophthalmologists, residents and medical officers) attending the Ophthalmological Society of Pakistan Annual Conference 2011, in Karachi were invited to participate in the study. A self-administered structured questionnaire was used to examine their knowledge of visual sensations and their associated anxiety/fear experienced by patients during cataract surgery. Simple frequencies and proportions were calculated to describe the data.ResultsA total of 150 ophthalmologists, residents and medical officers were invited to participate in the study. Of these, 68 (45.3%) responded. The mean age (±SD) of the participants was 42.9 (13.2) years. The proportion of participants who thought that patients could experience visual sensations during cataract surgery under regional anaesthesia was 89.7% and that under topical anaesthesia was 73.5%. The most frequently cited sensations included: light perception, changes in light brightness, movements, instruments and surgeon’s hands or fingers.The eye doctors estimated that 38.9% and 64.3% patients would see at least something during cataract surgery under regional anaesthesia and topical anaesthesia, respectively. They also believed that 24.2%-36.9% of patients may experience anxiety/fear as a result of visual sensations during such surgery. Approximately half of the eye doctors did not think that retained vision was a source of fear or anxiety for the patients. While most of them acknowledged the importance of preoperative counselling in helping to alleviate such fear/anxiety, the majority of them did not regularly counsel their patients on what to expect during the surgery.ConclusionOur study reveals that a significant proportion of eye doctors do not have adequate knowledge of the visual phenomenon and their associated anxiety or fear, that patients can experience during cataract surgery. Targeted educational interventions are needed to increase awareness of this phenomenon among eye care professionals.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Tauqir et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2012. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.