ANAESTHESIA FOR OPHTHALMIC SURGICAL PROCEDURES

Ophthalmic surgical procedures are performed under anaesthesia to enhance comfort and cooperation of patient.

To review factors influencing the choice of anaesthesia for ophthalmic surgical procedures.

Restrospective descriptive study.

Eye unit of a tertiary hospital.

All patients who had ophthalmic surgeries in the operating theatre from January 2002 to December 2009.

Two hundred and ninety ophthalmic surgeries were carried out during the study period. Age range was 1-95 years and mean of 61.0 ± 1.9; most (55%) were elderly while 4.8% were children. One hundred and fourty seven (50.7%) were males, 143(49.3%) females; male:female of 1.03:1. Local anaesthesia was the more commonly (92.1%) employed while general anaesthesia was used in 23(7.9%) patients. General anaesthesia was used more frequently (71.4%) in children compared to other age groups; the mean age and standard error of means for patients who had general anaesthesia (27.2 /5.4 years) is smaller compared to 63.9/0.93 years for patients who had local anaesthesia (p < 0.0001). Regional anaesthesia was the most frequently used for all types of procedures except for eye wall repairs in which general anaesthesia was used for 71.4% of patients (p < 0.0001). General anaesthesia was indicated in seven (41.2%) of emergency ophthalmic surgical procedures as compared to 16 (5.9%) of elective ophthalmic procedures P < 0.0001.

General anaesthesia was more commonly employed in children, eye wall repairs and emergency ophthalmic surgical procedures.