Tariq Mohammad¹*, Awais Rauf², Rashid Zia³, Imran Masood⁴, Sakkaf Ahmed Aftab⁵, Kashif Ali⁶, Sundas Maqsood⁷, Ijaz Sheikh⁸ and Muhammad Usman Saeed⁹

¹Department of Ophthalmology, Nottingham University Hospitals, Nottingham, United Kingdom
²Department of Ophthalmology, Royal Gwent Hospital, Newport, Wales, United Kingdom
³Department of Ophthalmology, East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust, United Kingdom
⁴Department of Ophthalmology, Birmingham and Midlands Eye Centre, Birmingham, United Kingdom
⁵Department of Ophthalmology, Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust, United Kingdom
⁶Department of Ophthalmology, Countess of Chester Hospital, Chester, United Kingdom
⁷Cornea and External disease service, Moorfields Eye Hospital, London, United Kingdom
⁸Department of Ophthalmology, Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust, United Kingdom
⁹St Pauls Eye Unit, Royal Liverpool University Hospital, United Kingdom

*Corresponding Author: Tariq Mohammad, Department of Ophthalmology, Nottingham University Hospitals, Nottingham, United Kingdom.

Received: March 13, 2025; Published: April 21, 2025

Abstract

Purpose: To survey the differences in clinical and surgical practices in approaching cataract surgery in small eyes amongst ophthalmologists in the United Kingdom.

Setting: The survey was filled out by ophthalmologists practising both in national health services and the private sector.

Design: A prospective cross-sectional survey-based study was conducted between Jan 2022 and Feb 2022.

Methods: The survey questionnaire consisted of 18 multiple-choice questions via SurveyMonkey Inc. based on an extensive literature review and expert opinions available on this topic.

Results: A total of 157 responses were collected through a national survey from Ophthalmic surgeons with varying degree of experience. Thirty per cent of surgeons aim to look for systemic associations associated with small eyes before approaching cataract surgery. A small eye is considered as having an axial length (AL) of less than 22 mm by the majority of participating Ophthalmic surgeons. Half of the participants use pre-operative intra-ocular pressure (IOP) lowering agents i.e. intravenous mannitol or acetazolamide. Forty per cent of experienced surgeons opt for post-operative cycloplegia routinely with one-fourth of this group performing sclerotomies intra-operatively.

Synopsis: The authors present the opinions of a large group of British ophthalmic surgeons dealing with small eye cataract surgery. There does not appear to be a consensus or standardised approach.

Research Ethics Approval: The National Health Services Research ethics committee review suggested that ethics approval is deemed not necessary.

Keywords: Cataract Surgery; Barrett True Axial Length (BTAL); Emmetropia Verifying Optical (EVO)

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Citation

Citation: Tariq Mohammad., et al. “Approach to Cataract Surgery in the Small Eyes: A Survey of UK Ophthalmologists".Acta Scientific Ophthalmology 8.5 (2025): 02-07.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2025 Tariq Mohammad., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.