Abstract
Purpose :
To investigate the possible role of glaucoma diagnosis as a risk factor for an intervention of the anesthesiologist in ASA1 (American Anesthesiologist Association classification) patients scheduled for outpatient cataract surgery
Methods :
(a) Observational case-control study. (b) study population: 100 consecutive ASA-1 patients, scheduled for outpatient cataract surgery and on treatment for chronic glaucoma for > 1 year (Group A), and 100 consecutive age and sex matched ASA-1 control patients, scheduled for outpatient cataract surgery (Group B). (c) main outcome: not-planned intervention of the anestesiologist through the procedure in the surgical theatre , (d) data analysis: multivariate polytomous logistic regression (SPSS software)
Results :
The anesthesiologist intervention was required in 76/200 patients (Group A: 68/100, Group B: 8/100). The details of the interventions are as follows: (a) acute blood pressure rise: i.v. benzodiazepines (43), i.v benzodiazepines + clonidine (5); (b) cardiac arrhythmia: i.v. benzodiazepines (4), i.v. atropine (4); (c) dyspnea: Oxygen suppl. (4), Oxygen + i.v. benzodiazepine (1); (d) acute anxiety: i.v. benzodiazepines (10), i.v. Fentanyl (2); (e) claustrophobia: fentanyl (1); (f) pain: i.v. benzodiazepine (1), fentanyl (1). No patient required hospitalization. The table shows the analysis of the single variables considered.
After running the multivariate analysis, “Treatment for chronic glaucoma” remained the only statistically significant risk factor
Conclusions :
Patients, on long term treatment for chronic glaucoma, may require additional anesthesiologist's support when exposed to routine cataract surgery
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2016 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Seattle, Wash., May 1-5, 2016.