ESONT EuroTimes: January - March 2005
In this Edition:

  Nurses and technicians have role in preventing postoperative toxic inflammation
Vigilance in the care and preparation of instruments and materials used in eye surgery is necessary to prevent a noninfectious type of endophthalmitis called Toxic Anterior Segment Syndrome (TASS), said Carol Ruehl, RN, CRNO.
  Pain during eye surgery often underestimated
Although it is often thought of as painless, many patients do experience considerable discomfort in association with eye surgery. Patients' subjective pain after ophthalmic procedures needs to be managed in a systematic way, say Finnish researchers."We developed a system for managing any pain experienced by ophthalmic patients in our hospital.
 

EUROPEAN MATTERS
Role for nurses and technicians in improving
safety and quality of refractive surgery
Ophthalmic nurses and technicians could play a central role in improving the safety and quality of refractive surgery. That prospect looms as a new report from the UK recommends an overhaul in the way in which refractive surgery centre staff prepare, treat, follow, and monitor refractive surgery patients.

  Tear film changes can skew topography
Meibomian gland lipid secretions can produce misleading topography findings that are not correlated with any slit-lamp pathologic findings, reported Greek researchers at the 2nd Annual Meeting of ESONT. Videokeratography (VKG) is used for preoperative screening of refractive surgery candidates, to test for warpage, keratoconus or other cornea abnormalities.
  Faster improvement from bilateral cataract surgery
Bilateral cataract surgery creates more immediate patient satisfaction than surgery with a delay between operations on each eye, according to a study presented to the 2nd Annual Meeting of ESONT. Susanne Albrecht conducted a randomised prospective study to compare the benefits of simultaneous bilateral cataract surgery over delayed cataract surgery, where there was a two-month delay between surgeries on each eye.
 
Focused care vital for AMD patients
Nurses must do all they can to comfort
AMD patients, yet at the same time they must work efficiently with an increasing patient-load and few resources. They must also update their skills and keep abreast of new developments in that field, Sirkka Salonen RN told the 2nd ESONT conference in Paris.