title: [Eyedrop anesthesia in cataract surgery].
abstract: Retro- und peribulbar anesthetic injections, the common techniques in cataract surgery, have persistently reported complications. Recently topical anesthesia has been mentioned as a possible alternative. The effectiveness of anesthesia, the acceptance on the part of the patients and the consequences of the lack of akinesia were analysed in a prospective study. We compared two groups of 27 patients. Patients in the first group had only topical anesthesia, while patients in the control group had a peribulbar injection. None of the patients included had such conditions as deafness or dementia or felt overanxious. Both methods were accepted very well by the patients. There were no significant differences in the improvement of visual acuity and the opinion of the patients about pain during the operation. The surgeon's assessment revealed a few cases of increased voluntary eye movements in the topical anesthesia group, but this did not affect the complication rate significantly. There was one case of vitreous loss in each group and in the peribulbar group one case of zonular defect. Topical anesthesia should be seen as an alternative to injection anesthesia.
authors.affiliation: Universitäts-Augenklinik Jena.
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Strobel
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hühnermann
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000772:Anesthesia, Local; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007910:Lenses, Intraocular; D008297:Male; D010147:Pain Measurement; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care; D018918:Phacoemulsification; D014792:Visual Acuity / Q000187:drug effects