Pain perception enhancement in consecutive secondeye phacoemulsification cataract surgeries under topical anesthesia

Cataract is the main cause of visual impairment and blindness worldwide while the only effective cure for cataract is still surgery.Consecutive phacoemulsification under topical anesthesia has been the routine procedure for cataract surgery.However,patients often grumbled that they felt more painful during the second-eye surgery compared to the first-eye surgery.The intraoperative pain experience has negative influence on satisfaction and willingness for second-eye cataract surgery of patients with bilateral cataracts.Intraoperative ocular pain is a complicated process induced by the nociceptors activation in the peripheral nervous system.Immunological,neuropsychological,and pharmacological factors work together in the enhancement of intraoperative pain.Accumulating published literatures have focused on the pain enhancement during the secondeye phacoemulsification surgeries.In this review,we searched PubMed database for articles associated with pain perception differences between consecutive cataract surgeries published up to Feb.1,2024.We summarized the recent research progress in mechanisms and interventions for pain perception enhancement in consecutive secondeye phacoemulsification cataract surgeries.This review aimed to provide novel insights into strategies for improving patients’intraoperative experience in second-eye cataract surgeries.

Comparison of the SchirmerⅠtest with and without topical anesthesia for diagnosing dry eye

·AIM:To determine the value of Schirmer Ⅰtest (SⅠt) without anesthesia and with topical anesthesia for diagnosing dry eye (DE). ·METHODS:Totally 220 eyes in 110 patients, male (44) and female (66), (39.56±12.67) years old diagnosed with DE were examined. SⅠt without anesthesia was performed firstly, and 15 minutes later, it was applied again in the same person after topical anesthesia with 0.5% proparacaine hydrochloride eye drops. The wetting strips counted <10mm per 5 minutes were defined positive, while ≤5mm per 5 minutes were defined strong positive. ·RESULTS:The wetting length in SⅠt after topical anesthesia was significantly lower than that in SⅠt without anesthesia(P < 0.001). The positive rate and strong positive rate of SⅠt after topical anesthesia were significantly higher than that of SⅠt without anesthesia (P <0.001). The positive rate and strong positive rate of SⅠt without anesthesia and the strong positive rate of SⅠt after topical anesthesia in patients with aqueous-deficiency dry eye (ADDE) were significantly higher than those in total patients whereas those in patients with evaporative dry eye (EDE) were significantly lower than those in total patients (P <0.001). ·CONCLUSION:SⅠt after topical anesthesia with 0.5% proparacaine hydrochloride eye drops is more objective and reliable than that without anesthesia in reflecting the status of DE, and its diagnostic value in patients with ADDE was even higher, making itself a meaningful evidence for the diagnosis and treatment of DE.

Management of procedural pain in the intensive care unit

Pain is a common experience for inpatients,and intensive care unit(ICU)patients undergo more pain than other departmental patients,with an incidence of 50%at rest and up to 80%during common care procedures.At present,the management of persistent pain in ICU patients has attracted considerable attention,and there are many related clinical studies and guidelines.However,the management of transient pain caused by certain ICU procedures has not received sufficient attention.We reviewed the different management strategies for procedural pain in the ICU and reached a conclusion.Pain management is a process of continuous quality improvement that requires multidisciplinary team cooperation,painrelated training of all relevant personnel,effective relief of all kinds of pain,and improvement of patients'quality of life.In clinical work,which involves complex and diverse patients,we should pay attention to the following points for procedural pain:(1)Consider not only the patient's persistent pain but also his or her procedural pain;(2)Conduct multimodal pain management;(3)Provide combined sedation on the basis of pain management;and(4)Perform individualized pain management.Until now,the pain management of procedural pain in the ICU has not attracted extensive attention.Therefore,we expect additional studies to solve the existing problems of procedural pain management in the ICU.

Radial Keratotomy:Eleven-year Experiences

During the period from 1980 to 1991,Radial Keratotomy(RK)hadbeen done by the author under topical anesthesia in more than 10000 cases,mostly on both eyes at the same time.Those patients had myopia with apreoperative refractive error between 1.5 and 20.0 diopters(D).The surgicaltechnique consisted of 4,8,16 incisions using a diamond knife with micrometerand the diameter of the central clear zone was mostly 3.0mm and determinedby preoperative refractive error.Many different procedures were tried to im-pro...

Clinical assessment of awake endotracheal intubation using the lightwand technique alone in patients with difficult airways

Background There is few study to determine whether the use of the lightwand technique alone could achieve effective, safe and successful awake endotracheal intubation （ETI）, therefore we designed a prospective clinical study to systematically evaluate the feasibility, safety and efficacy of awake ETI using the lightwand alone in patients with difficult airways. Methods Seventy adult patients with difficult airways were enrolled in this study. After the desired sedation with fentanyl and midazolam, airway topical anesthesia was performed with 9 ml of 2% lidocaine, which were in order sprayed in three aliquots at 5 minutes intervals into the supraglottic （two doses） and laryngotracheal areas （one dose） using a combined unit of the lightwand and MADgic atomizer. After airway topical anesthesia, awake ETI was performed using a Lightwand. Subjective assessments by patients and operators using the visual analogue scores （VAS）, and objective assessments by an independent investigator using patients＇ tolerance and reaction scores, coughing severity, intubating conditions and cardiovascular variables were taken as the observed parameters. Results Of 210 airway sprays, 197 （93.8%） were successfully completed on the first attempt. The total time for airway spray was （14.6±1.5） minutes. During airway topical anesthesia, the average patients＇ tolerance scores were 1.7-2.3. After airway topical anesthesia, the mean VAS for discomfort levels that the patients reported was 6.5. Also airway topical anesthesia procedure was rated as acceptable and no discomfort by 94.3% of patients. The lightwand-guided awake ETI was successfully completed on first attempt within 29 seconds in all patients. During awake ETI, patients＇ reaction and coughing scores were 1.9 and 1.6, respectively. All patients exhibited excellent or acceptable intubating conditions. Cardiovascular monitoring revealed that changes of systolic blood pressure and heart rate at each stage of airway manipulations were less than 20% of baseline values. The postoperative follow-up showed that 95.7% of patients had no recall or slight memories of all airway instrumentation. The incidence of postoperative mild airway complications was 38.6%. Conclusion Alone use of the lightwand technique can achieve effective, safe and successful awake ETI in patients with difficult airways.