Ocular Anaesthetic Scoring System

Cehajic-Kapetanovic et al report a simple and robust system for assessing and comparing non-topical local anaesthetic techniques (Ocular Anaesthetic Scoring System (OASS)). 100 patients were divided into four groups receiving either sub-Tenon or peribulbar block with 150 or 300 units of hyaluronidase. Patient satisfaction was determined using the Visual Analogue Pain Scale and Iowa Satisfaction with Anaesthesia Scale. The sub-Tenon approach achieved significantly better OASS scores than the peribulbar approach. 300 units of hyaluronidase gave significantly higher OASS scores in both sub-Tenon and peribulbar groups.

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Pain following vitrectomy (20G vs 25 G)

Wickham et al compared post-operative pain following 25-gauge (25G) and 20-gauge (20G) vitrectomy in the first week following surgery. In a randomised controlled trial with 40 patients masked to the treatment allocation, post-operative pain was assessed using both a visual scale and verbal pain scores. In the first 12 h, significant post-operative pain was similar in both groups; however, significant pain was experienced more commonly …