Infections after cataract surgery are rare, but if you have one, you'll get an injection of antibiotics in your eye. In some cases, the doctor also removes the vitreous, the clear gel found in the center of the eye, to prevent the infection from spreading. Fortunately, eye surgery for conditions such as cataracts is successful in most cases. Even so, in some cases, bacteria can enter the eye during surgery and cause a serious eye infection called endophthalmitis.
Endophthalmitis is the complication most dreaded by ophthalmologists. In the worst case scenario, the infection can cause blindness. Cataract surgery is one of the most commonly performed surgical procedures worldwide, and postoperative endophthalmitis is its most devastating complication. However, the multifactorial study found that the incidence of endophthalmitis in young patients after cataract surgery in our hospital was higher than in elderly patients, which was related to better compliance with postoperative medication by elderly patients.
In addition, studies34,35 showed that older age, a history of diabetes, and seasonal factors were also significant risk factors for endophthalmitis after cataract surgery. Basal factors predicting visual prognosis in acute postoperative bacterial endophthalmitis in patients undergoing cataract surgery. Correcting or treating these risk factors before cataract surgery is desirable to reduce the risk of infection. Based on the consensus of experts on the treatment of acute bacterial endophthalmitis after cataract surgery in China and the guiding principles abroad, a phased treatment scheme was adopted depending on the severity of the disease.
Among the various baseline characteristics, old age (P%3D0.02), poor visual acuity at the time of presentation (P%3D0.00), gram-negative bacterial infection (P%3D0.030) and the short time between cataract surgery and signs of endophthalmitis (P%3D0.02) were associated with poor visual prognosis. Toxic syndrome of the anterior segment after uncomplicated cataract surgery, possibly associated with intracameral use of cefuroxime. On the other hand, intracameral injection of the antibiotic cefuroxime (1 mg in 0.1 ml of normal saline solution) at the end of cataract surgery has led to a reduction in the number of cases of endophthalmitis. Older age, poor visual acuity at the time of presentation, the type of organism cultured (gram-negative bacteria), and the early onset of endophthalmitis after cataract surgery were significantly related to poor visual prognosis after endophthalmitis treatment.
Some scholars believe that season 13,36,37 and humidity and temperature38 influence the incidence of endophthalmitis after cataract surgery. Among the baseline characteristics, age, gender, visual acuity at the time of presentation, the time elapsed from cataract surgery to signs of endophthalmitis, the presence of hypopion at the time of presentation, the positivity of the microbial culture, the causative organism, pre-treatment before referral, and primary vitrectomy as initial treatment were identified as possible predictive factors of the visual outcome. The rate of occurrence of acute-onset postoperative endophthalmitis after cataract surgery in small and medium-sized Chinese ophthalmology departments.
