[Cataract surgery without preoperative mydriasis]

Abstract

Preoperative mydriasis is usually obtained by means of using combinations of sympatomimetics and parasympatolytics. The disadvantages of this method are: longer preoperative preparing time, toxic effect of eye drops and adverse systemic effects in some patients. The alternative to the standard dilating drops is use of intracameral lidocaine during the surgery. In our study, we used intracameral lidocaine 1% to achieve the mydriasis during the cataract surgery. By using this method, we operated on 38 eyes of 33 patients, 12 men and 21 women. The age ranged between 54 years and 85 years (mean, 72.2 years). The mean pupil diameter before dilation was 3.04 +/- 0.62 mm. The time necessary to dilate the pupil was 8.82 +/- 2.54 sec and the mean pupil diameter after the dilation was 7.11 +/- 0.74 mm. The pupil enlarged even more after the instillation of the ophthalmic viscoelastic material. At the end of the surgery, the diameter of the pupil was 7.12 +/- 0.62 mm. The mydriatic effect of intracameral lidocaine application is adequate and longstanding enough. This surgical method is wholly safe.