Immediate sequential bilateral cataract surgery: Prevalence, attitudes and concerns Among Italian ophthalmologists.

to investigate the existing practice patterns of immediate sequential bilateral cataract surgery (ISBCS) in Italy and to assess ophthalmologists' attitudes towards performing ISBCS in the future for cataract treatment. It is a multicenter cross-sectional study. From February,1 of the 2300 recipients, 246 (10.7%) completed the survey. Of the respondents, 156 (63.4%) replied to perform ISBCS, most of them (82%) occasionally (1 to 5 procedures per month). Fifty-three percent (130 ophthalmologists) considered adopting ISBCS as routine practice in the near future. The conditions most considered for ISBCS were age-related cataract surgery under general and topical anesthesia and congenital cataract surgery. The availability of separate instruments for the two eyes as well as patient and hospital advantages were the most important reasons for performing ISBCS. The risk of bilateral endophthalmitis and medicolegal issues were the main reasons for not performing ISBCS. ISBCS remains controversial among Italian surgeons, despite growing evidence of its safety and efficacy. The risk of potentially blinding complications such as bilateral endophthalmitis, together with medicolegal concerns are the principal barriers to ISBCS implementation in routine practice.

Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

Declaration of conflicting interestsThe authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.