Premium IOL surgery presents great challenge, opportunity

Eric D. Donnenfeld

NEW YORK — While premium IOL patients can be among the most difficult to please, a successful surgical outcome gives a "wow effect," creating a great opportunity through word-of-mouth referrals, according to a speaker here.

"The successful refractive IOL patient with good visual outcomes whose expectations have been met (or exceeded) is also the happiest patient in our practice and presents an enormous opportunity for all of us," Eric D. Donnenfeld, MD, said in a presentation at OSN New York 2009.

Dr. Donnenfeld shared clinical pearls for adopting premium IOLs into a practice.

Preoperatively, "the more chair time you spend before the surgery, the less you will spend after surgery," Dr. Donnenfeld said.

Patient selection is also very important. According to Dr. Donnenfeld, hyperopes and moderate myopes are better candidates than low myopes and emmetropes.

Surgeons should optimize their IOL calculations, confirm corneal topography and optimize the ocular surface preoperatively, he said. Surgeons should also use OCT to detect epiretinal membrane or other maculopathies.

Intraoperatively, IOL centration is key.

Postoperatively, the surgeon should never allow a patient to become angry because it will cause irreparable harm to the physician-patient relationship. This can be avoided if staff members immediately alert the surgeon if a patient complains. In this scenario, the physician should be fully prepared to answer questions.

"Exceeding expectations the day following surgery drives patient-to-patient referrals," Dr. Donnenfeld said. "Patients will call their friends the next day when they have a great result."

OSN New York 2010 will be held November 19-21, 2010 at the Sheraton New York Hotel & Towers in New York City. Learn more at OSNNY.com.