Eye Protection in Liver Transplantation Patients Under General Anesthesia.
Yang, S. C., Lee, H. Y. et al. (2018).Transplantation Proceedings 50(9): 2651-2653.
Aims
The aim of this current study is to compare the effectiveness of using Opsite in eye protection with either wet gauze alone or with wet gauze following application of eye ointment in patients undergoing living donor liver transplantation (LDLT).
Interventions
One eye of each patient was protected with sterile gauze soaked with normal saline solution and covered with Opsite. Duratears ointment was applied to the other eye before covering it with sterile wet gauze and Opsite (ointment group).
Participants
Total of 41 patients with 82 eyes undergoing liver transplantation were enrolled into this study.
Outcomes
Outcomes were assessed as corneal epithelial defects and/or abrasion in patients undergoing LDLT.
Follow-up
N/A
CET Conclusions
This small study investigates the use of an opsite dressing over wet gauze, with or without ointment, to prevent corneal abrasion during liver transplant surgery. The investigators witnessed no corneal abrasions in either group during the study, leading them to claim that either method was 100% successful. It is unclear what the hypothesis being tested here is. The authors seem to suggest that the novel intervention is the use of an opsite dressing to create the equivalent of a moisture chamber over the eye, and yet the difference between the two groups is the use of eye ointment or not. No power calculation is provided, but the authors suggest in the introduction that the incidence of corneal epithelial defects during surgery with the use of eye protection is 2.1%. To power a study to detect a reduction to 1% would require a sample size of over 2,500 patients, far in excess of the 41 patients recruited!
Data analysis
Per protocol analysis
Trial registration
None