[One Year Experience with Quality Control of Cataract Surgery Using an Internet-Based EUREQUO Database]

Purpose Quality control is particularly important in invasive medicine. As cataract surgery is the most frequently performed and most successful ophthalmic surgery, quality control should become mandatory. Patients and Methods Retrospective analysis of all cataract procedures performed in a 12 months period (01. 07. 2014 - 30. 06. 2015) at our hospital, using an internet-based EUREQOU database. This database is easy to use and allows local results to be compared with all participants in Switzerland and elsewhere in Europe. Results During one year, 904 cataract procedures were performed at our hospital. Of these, 892 with complete data were compared to 2918 operations performed in Switzerland and 274,644 in other European countries. Our sample contained more patients with markedly reduced visual acuity (< 0.1; 8.4/4.8/3.5 %; KSW/Switzerland/Europe), more patients with glaucoma (28.1/13.9/7.1 %) and more patients with pseudoexfoliation (22.8/11.5/0.56 %). Despite our training of young ophthalmic surgeons, the rate of capsular complications was as low (0.67/0.34/0.67 %) as in other series. Four to 6 weeks after surgery, the majority of patients achieved a best corrected visual acuity of ≥ 0.8 (79.2 vs. 87.4 % in Europe, not enough data from Switzerland). Biometric prediction error (79.2 % within ± 0.75 D) was within the target range, but in the lower quartile. Conclusions Despite the relatively high number of complex patients in our hospital, quality control reveals that we performed cataract surgery with low complication rates and good results. Although quality control is rapid and easy, only three centres in Switzerland are participating.