ATARACT SURGICAL PEARLS
Refractive cataract surgery can help prevent this very kind of situation.
How to Achieve Patient Satisfaction after Refractive Cataract Surgery by Olawale Salami
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esides visual acuity, patients demand a better quality of life after cataract surgery. At the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) 2020 Virtual — held on November 13 to 15 last year — among the interesting topics discussed during one of the symposiums was how to provide patient satisfaction after refractive cataract surgery.
Preventing falls and reducing morbidity According to Dr. Daniel Chang of the Empire Eye and Laser Centre, California, USA, in routine cataract surgery, they start by extracting cataracts, and then they use glasses to correct astigmatism
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and presbyopia. “But in refractive cataract surgery, we try to do all these at the same time, surgically. Therefore, we should ask ourselves, what is the added advantage? Does refractive cataract surgery offer convenience for the patient,” he asked the audience. “By offering refractive cataract surgery, we can help prevent falls and reduce morbidity and mortality in our patients,” said Dr. Chang. “When we think about the option of refractive surgery in each patient, we try to weigh the risks and benefits,” he shared. Fundamentally, presbyopia treatment for each patient is not optional and will be treated either surgically or
| Dec 2020/Jan 2021
with glasses. “We consider convenience, patient satisfaction, safety, and quality of life from the surgical perspective, but we worry about the quality of vision, cost, night-vision symptoms and operating time,” he explained. On the other hand — as Dr. Chang elaborated — glasses’ benefits include noninvasiveness, adjustability, and fashion. However, risks include limited peripheral vision, depth perception, nose/ear irritation, and edge contrast sensitivity. The loss of edge contrast sensitivity and depth perception increases the risk of falls in patients using bifocal glasses. In the elderly, this is a particularly essential
