Safety of Simultaneous Bilateral Intraocular Surgery Under General Anesthesia in Pediatric Patients

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the risks and benefits of simultaneous bilateral intraocular surgery (SBIS) in pediatric patients at a university hospital in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, who are placed under general anesthesia for the procedure. METHODS: This retrospective, noncomparative case study comprised 15 children, who underwent bilateral cataract surgery and/or primary or secondary intraocular lens (IOL) implantation in one sitting between November 2008 and July 2014. Seven patients had bilateral lensectomy primary posterior capsulotomy and anterior vitrectomy, and the remaining eight patients had bilateral IOL implantation at the capsular bag either primarily IOL implantation (two cases) at the time of cataract extraction or secondary IOL implantation at the capsular bag (six cases). Bilateral surgeries were performed sequentially by the same surgeon, with strict aseptic separation of the two surgeries, while the patient was under general anesthesia. RESULTS: The age of the patients at the time of the surgery ranged from 7 months to 9 years (mean age 2.13 years). The patients were followed up approximately for 4 months postsurgery. There were no catastrophic complications from the anesthesia (death, asphyxia, cardiac or respiratory arrest, or seizures) nor were there any intraoperative complications that necessitated cancelation of surgery in the second eye. Postoperatively, one patient was noted to have reproliferation of lens material in one eye. However, no serious postoperative complications such as endophthalmitis, aphakic glaucoma, and hyphema were noted. CONCLUSION: SBIS conducted during the same operative procedure is an alternative to sequential surgery in selected pediatric patients if operative guidelines and surgical asepsis are strictly followed.