Clinical Ophthalmology (Aug 2020)

Perceived Surgeon Stress During No-Sedation Topical Phacoemulsification

  • Mansour A,
  • Stewart MW,
  • Charbaji AR,
  • El Jawhari KM,
  • El Zein L,
  • Mansour MA,
  • Saade JS

Journal volume & issue
Vol. Volume 14
pp. 2373 – 2381

Abstract

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Ahmad Mansour,1,2 Michael W Stewart,3 Abdul Razzak Charbaji,4,5 Khalil M El Jawhari,6 Lulwa El Zein,1 Mohamad A Mansour,1 Joanna S Saade1 1Department of Ophthalmology, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon; 2Department of Ophthalmology, Rafic Hariri University Hospital, Beirut, Lebanon; 3Department of Ophthalmology, Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, FL, USA; 4Department of Statistics and Research Methodology, Lebanese American University, Beirut, Lebanon; 5Department of Statistics and Research Methodology, Lebanese University, Beirut, Lebanon; 6Faculty of Medicine, Medical University of Lodz, Lodz, PolandCorrespondence: Ahmad Mansour Email [email protected]: To determine the patient-related factors that contribute to surgeon stress during phacoemulsification cataract extraction (PCE) performed under unassisted topical anesthesia.Methods: This is a prospective study of perceived surgeon stress during phacoemulsification by a single surgeon of consecutive patients undergoing PCE. At the conclusion of each procedure, the surgeon recorded the perceived stress according to the following three indices: surgeon score, qualitative score (yes or no), and total score (sum of itemized causes of stress). Patient variables included in the analysis included gender, age, diabetes mellitus, morbid obesity, intake of oral alpha blockers, floppy iris, laterality, pseudo-exfoliation, intraocular lens power, and initial visual acuity.Results: During the 10-year study, 1097 eyes underwent surgery. The following patient variables were seen frequently: floppy iris syndrome (92), pseudo-exfoliation (72), and morbid obesity (36). Surgeon identified stress was reported after 250 procedures. On multivariable analysis, the following patient characteristics were associated with surgeon stress: age > 80 years; morbid obesity; floppy iris syndrome; severe nuclear sclerosis; and poor baseline distance corrected visual acuity.Conclusion: Several ocular and systemic patient-related characteristics contribute to surgeon stress during PCE.Keywords: brunescent cataract, cataract, floppy iris, morbid obesity, phacoemulsification, pseudo-exfoliation, surgeon stress, surgery time, topical anesthesia

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