Anaesthesia application modes compared

Contact anaesthesia is just as safe and effective as peribulbar application for combined cataract and glaucoma surgery, according to study results published online ahead of print by Ophthalmologica.

Luis E. Pablo of the Department of Ophthalmology at Miguel Servet University Hospital, Zaragoza, Spain and colleagues conducted a randomized study of patients undergoing phacotrabeculectomy (n=120), assessing pain, complications and success of surgery and comparing the results obtained by patients receiving topical contact anaesthesia with those obtained from peribulbar anaesthesia injection.

The team found that peribulbar injection was associated with more pain than topical anaesthesia at the time of application; during and after surgery, however, there was no difference in the levels of pain experienced by the separate groups. In terms of both tension and visual acuity, there was again no difference between the groups treated with the different application methods.

Therefore the researchers concluded that, during surgery and in the mid- to long-term, topical anaesthesia application and peribulbar application are associated with similar outcomes and levels of pain.