Eyeworld

EW CATARACT/IOL 58 March 2011 by Maxine Lipner Senior EyeWorld Contributing Editor Double trouble: Diplopia following cataract or refractive surgery Keying in on conditions that can cause double vision P re-existing strabismus and a family history of this are two red flags to look for when trying to head off diplopia in cataract pa- tients, according to Kammi B. Gunton, M.D., assistant surgeon, Wills Eye Institute, Philadelphia. In- vestigators led by Dr. Gunton re- ported on the incidence and causes of diplopia following cataract and refractive surgery in the September 2010 issue of Current Opinions in Ophthalmology. Retrospective review Diplopia is a rare problem, but Wills Eye Institute hosts an adult strabis- mus clinic, and double vision tends to occur more frequently in patients here. "At this point there are eight different physicians at Wills who see adult patients with double vision," Dr. Gunton said. "We wanted to see what the underlying causes are for people who have double vision." Since there were not enough pa- tients from Wills Eye alone, investi- gators opted to conduct a literature search on this. "We didn't have enough data to do a study of just our patients," Dr. Gunton said. "We decided to do a literature search to see if we could help the people in our service and give them an idea of what the causes and treatments are." The hope was to help practitioners zero in on what works and what doesn't. In addition, investigators wanted to alert general practitioners about potential red flags that could lead to diplopia following surgery. "There are certainly patients who are more likely to have double vision after cataract surgery," Dr. Gunton said. "I wanted to make sure that practitioners are aware of the red flags." This retrospective study keyed in on cataract surgeons who had recorded double vision in their pa- tients, as well as strabismus special- ists with patients who had double vision. Investigators reported that fol- lowing retrobulbar anesthesia for cataract extraction, the incidence of diplopia ranged from 0.23-0.98%. However, in case series involving topical anesthesia, there was an inci- dence ranging from 0-0.21%. Red flags Strabismus ultimately turned out to be a major red flag. "The most com- mon cause of double vision follow- ing cataract surgery was pre-existing strabismus that had been controlled and then decompensated following cataract surgery," Dr. Gunton said. "If there is any history of strabismus, practitioners should warn these pa- tients that they may have double vi- sion afterward." In addition, Dr. Gunton thinks that it's important to ask if other family members are strabismus suf- ferers. Approximately one-quarter of the patients in the study were found to have a family history of strabis- mus as well. "They may have some- thing that is underlying that you don't know about," Dr. Gunton said. The patients' glasses in some cases may tell a story. "Another way to predict diplopia is shockingly simple—look and see if patients have any type of prism in their glasses," Dr. Gunton said. "Some- times it's quite small and patients forget about it." Investigators also found that systemic diseases, such as a thyroid condition, can be the culprit. "Even if they don't have thyroid eye dis- ease, those patients could end up having some type of strabismus problem," Dr. Gunton said. "Again, it was probably something that was small and underlying that decom- pensated when we manipulated their vision system." When it came to treatment, there was good news. "It is treat- able," Dr. Gunton said. "For most of these patients you can do strabismus surgery and the double vision goes away." The study also delved into dou- ble vision following refractive sur- gery with LASIK. Dr. Gunton found that this occurred far less frequently and appeared to have a different ori- gin. It usually occurs in just one eye and is linked to a corneal aberration that can occasionally occur follow- ing refractive surgery, Dr. Gunton explained. She hopes that practitioners come away from the study with a better understanding of current causes of surgically related diplopia. "Prior to topical anesthesia, the most common cause of double vi- sion used to be injection into a mus- cle with a local anesthetic, and that is becoming very rare," Dr. Gunton said. "Some practitioners may think that since we're not using injection anesthesia, no one gets double vi- sion any more and we don't have to worry about it." This study, how- ever, discounts that. "We're showing that even in cases of topical anesthe- sia, there are still patients who have double vision, and there are some red flags to watch for," Dr. Gunton said. Overall, when it comes to refrac- tive surgery, Dr. Gunton stressed that questions remain. "This is something that is going to come up more fre- quently as more people have refrac- tive surgery, and I think that we don't understand it well enough," she said. "I think that we probably have to look at this a lot more." EW Editors' note: Dr. Gunton has no finan- cial interests related to her comments. Contact information Gunton: kbgunton@comcast.net A new study found that following retrobulbar anesthesia for cataract extraction, the incidence of diplopia ranged from 0.23-0.98% Source: Gary L. Fanning, M.D. Study: Brimonidine-timolol fixed combo reduces IOP after phaco A fixed brimonidine-timolol combination has been shown to re- duce IOP in patients 6, 12, and 24 hours after phacoemulsifi- cation surgery, according to a study published in the February issue of the Journal of Cataract & Refractive Surgery. The study, led by Nikolaos Pharmakakis, M.D., was a prospective, ran- domized, comparative case series conducted at Greece's Patras University Hospital department of ophthalmology. Patients scheduled for phaco were randomized into two groups. The treatment group (28 eyes) re- ceived one drop of brimonidine-timolol combination immediately after surgery, while the control group (30 eyes) received no treatment. According to the published results, the mean IOP increased by 0.14 mm Hg±3.88 (SD) (P=.88) in the treatment group and increased by 2.8± 5.01 mm Hg (P=.007) in the control group. Twelve hours after surgery, the mean IOP decreased by −0.57±3.82 mm Hg (P=.49) in the treatment group and increased by 2.20±4.56 mm Hg (P=.009) in the control group. Twenty-four hours after surgery, the mean IOP decreased by −1.57±2.30 mm Hg (P=.012) in the treatment group and increased by 0.86±4.21 mm Hg (P=.175) in the control group.

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