Anaesthesia for ophthalmic surgical procedures

Background: Ophthalmic surgical procedures are performed under anaesthesia to enhance comfort and cooperation of patient. Objective: To review factors influencing the choice of anaesthesia for ophthalmic surgical procedures. Design: Restrospective descriptive study Setting: Eye unit of a tertiary hospital. Subjects: All patients who had ophthalmic surgeries in the operating theatre from January 2002 to December 2009. Results: 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. Conclusion: General anaesthesia was more commonly employed in children, eye wall repairs and emergency ophthalmic surgical procedures.