The Evaluation of the Influences of the Patient's Characteristics in Performing the Pinpoint Anesthesia

Local anesthesias such as retrobulbar anesthesia, peribulbar anesthesia and topical anesthesia are commonly preferred as intraocular surgical anesthesia. We evaluated the efficacy of pinpoint anesthesia described by Hidefaru Fukasaku in 1993. We performed in point anesthesia in 57 cataract patients from March 1995 to May 1995 at Kangnam St, Mary's Hospital. The younger the patients and the higher the education level, the smaller intraocular pressure increase and the better patient's compliance. Pinpoint anesthesia might be substituted with other currently used local ocular anesthesia might be substituted with other currently used local ocular anesthesia when patient's selection is appropriate and it is carried out by the well-trained doctors.

Comparison of Effects of Topical, Pinpoint and Retrobulbar Anesthesin in Cataract Surgery using Clear Corneal Incision

In order to evaluate the efficacy of topical anesthesia as an alternative to pinpoint or retrobulbar anesthesia in clear corneal cataract surgery, ninety patients were randomly assigned to the topical(n=30), pinpoint(n=30), or retrobulbar(n=30) anesthesia groups prospectively. All procedures including CCC, phacoemulsification, and foldable IOL implantation were performed using a temporal clear corneal approach by one surgeon(Joo). visual rehabilitation, change of astigmatism, degree of pain, comfortability, cooperation, and intraoperative and postoperative complications were compared. Intraocular pressure was higher in pinpoint anesthesia than in topical anesthesia at the beginning point of operation(p<0.05). Four hours after surgery, topical of pinpoint anesthesia group had significantly better visual acuity than retrobulbar anesthesia group(p<0.05). Pain score in topical anesthesia was marginally higher than that in retrobulbar anesthesia during the phacoemulsification. Comfortability was prominent in topical anesthesia group. There was no difference among the groups in change of astigmatism, cooperation and risk of serious complicatins. With these results it was found that topical anesthesia would be a safe, effective alternative to pinpoint or retrobulbar anesthesia in cataract surgery using clear corneal incision.