Corneal Injury Risk Reduction During Sedation for Colonoscopy: An Evidence Based Practice Change.

Area of Science:

• Medical Procedures
• Patient Safety
• Ophthalmology

Background:

• Corneal injuries are a potential risk following sedation for endoscopic procedures.
• Current practice often involves lateral positioning post-sedation to mitigate eye injury risk.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the effectiveness of supine positioning as an alternative to lateral positioning in preventing corneal injuries after endoscopic procedures.
• To assess the impact of this practice change on the incidence of corneal injury and eye irritation.

Main Methods:

• An evidence-based practice change project utilizing a pre- and post-implementation design.
• Retrospective data from 4,422 procedures (12 months) were compared with prospective data from 3,080 procedures (8 months) after the intervention.

Main Results:

• The incidence of corneal injury decreased from 0.158% to 0.097% after implementing supine positioning.
• Statistical analysis (Fisher's exact test, linear regression) revealed no significant reduction in corneal injury rates (P > .05).

Conclusions:

• Supine positioning did not demonstrate a statistically significant impact on reducing corneal injury incidence.
• The findings suggest that corneal injury may be multifactorial, with supine positioning addressing only one potential contributing factor.