Immediate ambulation after planned extra-capsular cataract extraction and implant of intra-ocular lens

Day-case or outpatient cataract surgery has been reported many times over the past thirty years or so and the modern micro-surgical techniques were deemed safe enough to allow immediate ambulation and return to the home environment even with the additional step of an intra-ocular lens provided the lens were of the type designed for positive fixation. The trend also toward the planned extra-capsular method of cataract removal was thought to be a further safeguard to the patient, particularly the elderly age-group of patients for whom implants are strongly indicated and for whom also early ambulation and avoidance of general anaesthesia are important in reduction of morbidity. Consequently, a study began in November, 1976, to follow those patients who had the indication and the desire to have their implant surgery on a Day-case basis and this presentation gives the results on 100 cases collected over the 3 1/2 year period. Local anaesthesia was used in all cases and planned extra-capsular surgery was performed with irrigating micro-instruments. Irido-capsular lenses of Binkhorst design were used mostly and the visual results, low complication rate and patient satisfaction appear equal to reports of similar series on In-patient cases.