Should Patients Opt for Dropless Cataract Surgery?
August 27, 2016
With dropless cataract surgery, the eye surgeon injects a compounded drug consisting of FDA-approved antibiotics and steroids into the eye at the time of surgery to reduce or eliminate the need for postoperative eyedrops used to prevent infections and inflammation.
For a helpful overview of the pros and cons of dropless cataract surgery, please see this blog post (published in April 2016 by an optometrist monitoring a patient after dropless cataract surgery).
For a more detailed discussion of the benefits of dropless cataract surgery, click here for a Medscape article published in December 2015 (subscription required).
The July 2016 issue of the Journal of Clinical Ophthalmology published the results of a small clinical study comparing the efficacy of triamcinolone acetonide, moxifloxacin hydrochloride and vancomycin (Tri-Moxi-Vanc) injected transzonularly into the vitreous at the time of surgery with a post-operative regimen of the topical formulation of Pred-Moxi-Ketor (given for the first week postoperatively) followed by Pred-Ketor (given for weeks 2–4 after surgery).
The study found that cataract surgery completed with the two pharmaceutical regimens was similar in outcome and therapeutic effect, but significantly more subjects preferred the injection, presumably as a function of the greater convenience.
Click here to read an abstract of the study.
Surgeons weighing Tri-Moxi vs. Tri-Moxi-Vanc should be aware that use of vancomycin during cataract surgery has been associated with an increased risk of severe vision loss, including blindness, due to hemorrhagic occlusive retinal vasculitis.
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