The first clinical uses of a local anesthetic agent occurred in 1884, when cocaine was employed as a topical agent for eye surgery and to produce a nerve block. These events inaugurated a new era, that of regional anesthesia. New applications were developed, including spinal, epidural, and caudal anesthesia. The search for a better local anesthetic led to chemical synthesis of a number of other...

The large majority of patients undergoing ophthalmic surgery are elderly and take systemic medications on a regular basis, including antiplatelet and anticoagulant treatments. It is current practice for many physicians to discontinue antithrombotic treatment prior to surgery to reduce bleeding complications that may lead to retrobulbar haemorrhage and, ultimately, to loss of vision. However, di...

PURPOSE To determine whether dizziness and falls rates change due to routine cataract surgery and to determine the influence of spectacle type and refractive factors. METHODS Self-reported dizziness and falls were determined in 287 patients (mean age of 76.5 ± 6.3 years, 55% females) before and after routine cataract surgery for the first (81, 28%), second (109, 38%) and both eyes (97, 34%). ...

Background: Vaginal aplasia is a rare congenital anomaly with different surgical techniques suggested for vaginal reconstruction.McIndoe vaginoplasty is an easy one of these surgical methods with a low morbidity rate, but its long-term results need to be further investigated. Therefore, the female genital anatomy and sexual function was examined afte...

In ophthalmologic studies, measurements obtained from both eyes of an individual are often highly correlated. Ignoring the correlation could lead to incorrect inferences. An asymptotic method was proposed by Tang and others (2008) for testing equality of proportions between two groups under Rosner's model. In this article, we investigate three testing procedures for general g ≥ 2 groups. Our si...

AIM To analyse possible predictors of the self assessed functional outcome of a cataract extraction. METHODS The patients' self assessed visual function was studied by use of a questionnaire, the "Catquest", before and 6 months after surgery. All patients (n=1933, mean age 75.5 years, 66.8% women) who were undergoing cataract surgery in March 1995, in 35 different departments of ophthalmology...

AIM To evaluate the reliability of the pressure phosphene tonometer in comparison with the Goldmann applanation tonometer. METHODS 45 consecutive patients with glaucoma (78 eyes) participated in the study. Eyes with previous eye surgery, a documented peripheral visual field defect, a refractive error of more than 5 dioptres, and patients who were unable to understand the procedure were exclud...

BACKGROUND/AIMS Well dilated pupils make eye surgery easier. A classic twin study was established to examine the relative importance of genes and environment in the variance of pupil size after mydriasis, and to examine the effects of other factors such as age, iris colour, and refractive error. METHODS 506 twin pairs, 226 monozygotic (MZ) and 280 dizygotic (DZ), aged 49-79 (mean age 62.2 yea...

OBJECTIVE To perform a reference case cost-utility analysis of second-eye cataract surgery by using the current literature on cataract outcomes and complications. DESIGN Computer-based econometric modeling. METHODS Visual acuity data of patients treated and observed over a 4-month postoperative period were obtained from the U.S. National Cataract Patient Outcomes Research Team report. The r...

Computer and robot assisted eye surgery has great potential to address common problems encountered in many eye surgery tasks including poor visualization, lack of force sensing, hand tremor, and accessibility. Positional feedback of the instruments relative to the eye can be used to prevent undesirable collisions, improve remote center of motion interaction, and possibly automate tasks like ins...