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Phaco complication rates can be reduced, not eliminated
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MIAMI — Intraoperative complications during cataract surgery are inevitable, but there are steps surgeons can take before scrubbing in that could help reduce their incidence, according to a surgeon speaking here.
Alejandro Espaillat, MD, a voluntary assistant professor of ophthalmology at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, discussed approaches to minimizing cataract surgery complications at the Inter-American Course on Clinical Ophthalmology here. He likened surgery to driving in the rain.
"You have to do a lot of maneuvers to prevent accidents," he said through an interpreter. "It's the same thing in surgery. The issue is you have to have good safety, and you need to learn how to drive in difficult conditions."
Dr. Espaillat said he makes sure the patient's head and arms are restrained to ensure that the patient does not move during surgery.
"Also make sure you are in the correct position," he said. "We sit temporally because you have better room there."
It is also important to confirm with the technician that the instruments are cleaned and sterile and that the appropriate eye is marked for surgery.
"I put a 'yes' or 'no' over each eye ... and on the microscope I put a note with the patient's name, which surgery it is going to be, and which eye you are working on," he said. "The key here is if you keep to the details, then you will prevent many complications."