Early postoperative pain control study of cold water irrigation in patients with femtosecond laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis
Objective To investigate the effect of intraoperative cold water irrigation on early postoperative pain following femtosecond laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis(FS-LASIK).Methods A prospective case-control study.A to-tal of 34 eyes from 34 myopic patients undergoing FS-LASIK were included in this study.Patients received FS-LASIK treat-ment in both eyes,and were randomly divided into cold water group and room temperature water group.The cold water group received intraoperative irrigation with chilled saline solution,while the room temperature water group received irriga-tion with room temperature saline solution.Pain levels of both groups were recorded at the end of the surgery,and at post-operative days 1,2and 3.Patient refraction and occurrence of complications were measured and recorded during preopera-tive and postoperative follow-up.Results At postoperative day 3,both the cold water and room temperature water groups showed higher mean efficacy and safety indices(all P>0.05).Intraoperative cold water irrigation affected the pain level at the end of surgery,with the cold water group experiencing less pain than the room temperature water group(P<0.01).Pain scores on postoperative days 1,2and 3 were not influenced by intraoperative irrigation,and there was no statistically significant difference between the groups(all P>0.05).Furthermore,at the three-month postoperative mark,there was no statistically significant difference in refractive error or complication rates between the two groups(P>0.05).Conclu-sions Despite FS-LASIK being one of the mainstream procedures for myopia treatment,postoperative pain remains an un-avoidable concern.The results of this study suggest that using cold water irrigation during surgery can alleviate postopera-tive pain at the end of the procedure.
Femtosecond laserLaser in situ keratomileusisMyopiaCold water