Ophthalmic drugs and anesthesia interactions

Ophthalmic medications are often overlooked in the preoperative evaluation for patients experiencing surgery and anesthesia as "just eye drops." Both acute and chronic administration of these agents affects the anesthesia practitioner. Virtually every patient experiencing anesthesia for cataract extraction will have other nonanesthetic medications administered perioperatively. Medications are dispensed throughout the age continuum for the treatment of glaucoma on a chronic basis. All of these medications have the potential to cause morbidity and mortality by themselves or in combination with other drugs, to include anesthetic agents. This article focuses on the more common agents the anesthetist will encounter.