EyeWorld is the official news magazine of the American Society of Cataract & Refractive Surgery.
Issue link: https://digital.eyeworld.org/i/831102
EW CATARACT 29 on the visual desires of patients, as well as important clues about their personalities. "Some patients simply refuse to fill out the questionnaire," Dr. Dell said. "This is a warning sign." Others will mark up the ques- tionnaire by writing in the margins, replacing words, providing a de- tailed narrative of their visual woes, or changing their answers multiple times. When the questionnaire was validated by correlating results with postop patient satisfaction levels, patients' self-described personality assessments—on a scale of "easygo- ing" to "perfectionist"—stood out. "The least happy people postop- eratively were those who rated their personality exactly in the middle of the scale," Dr. Dell said. "When we consulted a psychologist about the possible significance of this finding, it was suggested that this response indicated passive-aggressive behav- ior and that the patient didn't like the fact that they were being asked to complete a questionnaire." The most helpful aspect of the questionnaire for Dr. Dell was its ability to quickly identify people who have no desire to achieve spec- tacle independence postop. "This information saves a lot of potentially wasted time," Dr. Dell said. For patients, the questionnaire was most helpful in cementing in their minds that optical compromis- es from preop visual goals may be required. "By answering difficult ques- tions, they begin to realize that complete independence from glasses might carry with it a greater risk of dysphotopsias or other optical com- promises such as a loss of stereop- sis," Dr. Dell said. Dr. Braga-Mele said the Dell questionnaire is "very good" but that it doesn't reduce the impor- tance of surgeons speaking with their patients and discussing their options. She has learned from expe- rience that even working with the best practices and addressing expec- tations can still lead to surprises. "Although I fully believe in spending chair time before surgery to minimize chair time after sur- gery, we need to be ready to address certain issues and walk patients through unmet expectations if nec- essary," Dr. Braga-Mele said. EW Editors' note: Dr. Braga-Mele has finan- cial interests with Alcon (Fort Worth, Texas), Allergan (Irvine, California), and Johnson & Johnson Vision (Santa Ana, California). Dr. Dell has financial interests with Allergan and Johnson & Johnson Vision. Contact information Braga-Mele: rbragamele@rogers.com Dell: steven@dellmd.com June 2017