`97 Survey of Korean society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery Members

ABSTRACT

Cataract and refractive surgical procedures are now among the most common and successful in medicine. A clear understanding of the current situation and future trends in these fields has become increasingly important. Since 1995, we have annually surveyed the members of the Korean Society of Cataract and Refractive surgery(KSCRS) about cataract surgery technique, anesthesia, intraocular lens and refractive surgery. Third annual survey forms consisted of 71 multiple-choice questions were mailed in January 1998 to 180 ophthalmologist members of the KSCRS. Approximately 44% of the questionnaires mailed were returned by the February cutoff date. Current data were compared with data in previous annual survey. Over half of the respondents(52%) were in forties. Most of the cataract operation(83%) was carried out on hospitalized patients. Use of a retrobulbar with akinesia for cataract was 49%, and use of topical anesthesia increased from 5% in 1995 to 17% in 1996. Eight-one percent of surgeons used phacoemulsification for more than half of their patients. Selfsealing wound construction was main wound closure technique in phacoemulsification for 44%. The type of intraocular lens used for small incision cataract surgery included silicone(64%), small round PMMA(polymethyl methacrylate, 21%), and acrylic(11%). Sixty-three percent of surgery. From the answers to the survey, we found current trend and these results are valuable information to all ophthalmologists.