Sub Conjunctival versus Peribulbar Local Anaesthesia in Cataract Surgery

Abstract

Background: Cataract surgery can be performed with different methods of local anaesthesia. This study was conducted to compare the pain score and analgesia with sub-conjunctival versus peribulbar anaesthesia.

Material & Methods: This comparative study was conducted on patients for cataract surgery from March 2010 to December 2010. One hundred and thirty consecutive patients with age related cataract were included in the study. They were divided in two groups A and B each with 65 patients. In group A subconjunctival 2% lidocaine mixed with adrenaline, while in group B 2% lidocaine mixed with adrenaline was given peribulbar. The results of the two groups regarding analgesia were compared using x2 test.

Results: Among 130 patients, 62(47.7%) were males and 68(52.3%) females. In group A, 57(87.7%) patients had 0 pain score, 2(3.1%) score 1, 1(1.5%) patients score 2, 2(3.1%) score 3 and 3(4.6%) had score 4. In group B, 55(84.6%) patients has score 0, 5(7.7%) score 1, 3(4.6%) score 2 and 2(3.1%) score 4. The difference between the analgesic effect of the two methods was found to be statistically insignificant (p>0.05).

Conclusion: Both the types of local anesthesia i.e. sub-conjunctival and peribulbar are comparable regarding analgesia.