Ophthalmic surgical patients: what additional information do they require before surgery?

It has been observed that often, post-operative eye patients still ask questions expected to have been addressed in the pre-operative routine clinic information.

To find out additional information that ophthalmic surgical patients require before surgery.

A survey of 103 post-operative ophthalmic patients was carried out using an interviewer administered semistructured questionnaire at three different hospitals in Kwara State of Nigeria between July 2005 and September 2006. Information sought included age, sex, ethnicity, and the type of eye surgery the patients had. Patients were to indicate what other information apart from those that had been given (routine information in the clinic) they would like to have had prior to surgery.

One hundred and three patients consisting of 63 males and 40 females with an age range of 20 to 99 years were surveyed. Additional information required by the patients included duration of surgery 49 (47.6%), duration of hospital stay after surgery 70 (69%), and major complications of surgery 38 (36.9%). One patient each wanted information on period of convalescence at home before resuming work, authentic (written) cost of surgery, causes of the disease and chances of recurrence of the disease.

Ophthalmic surgical patients require further information apart from routine clinic information on their surgeries. The need to improve on the present way of information transfer to the prospective ophthalmic surgical patients is underscored.