Manual small-incision cataract surgery under topical anesthesia

Manual small-incision cataract surgery is one of the most common surgical procedures in ophthalmology. Most cataract surgeries are performed under local anaesthesia. Peribulbar or retrobulbar anaesthesia is commonly used to achieve analgesia and akinesia during surgery but it has various complications. Our aim was to study patient comfort and surgeon's perspective in terms of patient cooperation in MSICS under topical anaesthesia using only proparacaine 0.5% eye drops without any periocular block or intracameral drug. Also to popularise Topical MSICS similar to Topical Phacoemulsification. A prospective analytical study of 33 patients who underwent MSICS surgery from March 2022 to June 2022 using Topical proparacaine eye drops 0.5% was done and patient's comfort and surgeon's perspective in terms of patient cooperation was studied on a scale of 1-5. Out of 33 patients who underwent surgery, the average comfort score based on patient feedback was 3.45± 0.96 and average patient cooperation score based on surgeon assessment was 3.42 ± 1.07 on a scale of 1-5. We concluded that MSICS using only topical proparacaine 0.5% eye drops, can provide sufficient patient comfort and can avoid complications related to peribulbar anaesthesia. Hence it can be used in large scale cataract surgeries and also provides economical utilisation of resources, lesser complications and early post operative recovery without compromising surgical outcome.