Abstract
Purpose :
Postoperative clinic visits after cataract surgery are an essential part of a successful outcome, allowing physicians to identify potentially vision-threatening complications. Missed postoperative appointments remain an obstacle to optimal care. This study aims to evaluate rates and risk factors for missing routine postoperative appointments and becoming lost to follow up after cataract surgery at a US safety net hospital.
Methods :
In this IRB approved study, 2600 patients who underwent cataract surgery between April 2021-April 2023 at a US safety net hospital were identified. Interim analysis of 280 eyes was performed. Demographic information including age, race, sex, primary payer, zip code, primary language and use of interpreter were collected. Preoperative data including medical history, ocular history, preoperative visual acuity (VA), intraocular pressure (IOP) and cataract type were obtained. Intraoperative data including case time, intraocular lens (IOL) type and intraoperative complications were collected. Rates of missed postoperative day one (POD1), week one (POW1) and month one (POM1) appointments were determined. Patients were considered lost to follow up (LTFU) if they missed a post operative appointment and subsequently did not re-present for ocular care.
Results :
280 eyes were reviewed for interim analysis. Four patients (1.5%) missed their POD1 appointment, 46 (16.8%) missed their POW1 appointment and 90 (32.8%) missed their POM1 appointment. 56 patients (21.0%) were lost to follow up. Patients with Spanish as their primary language had higher rates of missed POM1 visit and LTFU. Patients with poorer preoperative VA had higher rates of missing POD1, POW1 and POM1 appointments. Individuals with shorter case times had higher rates of missing POM1 and becoming LTFU.
Conclusions :
Interim analyses demonstrated a large number of patients who missed postoperative visits or were lost to follow up. These analyses identify risk factors for patients in receiving standard postoperative care following cataract surgery. Future analyses will focus on utilizing a larger sample size and examining other identifiable risk factors for being lost to follow up including distance from hospital, primary insurer or payer, and associations with intraoperative complications.
This abstract was presented at the 2024 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Seattle, WA, May 5-9, 2024.