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Study on the Impact of Ocular Anesthetic Procedures in Ocular Blood Flow

NCT01840215 · Status: COMPLETED · Type: OBSERVATIONAL · Enrollment: 240

Last updated 2015-05-29

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

Anaesthetic procedures in ophthalmology surgery have been a subject rapidly evolving in the past decades. When deciding for a retrobulbar block, the local injection of varying mixtures and volumes of fast-acting anesthetics (such as lidocaine) - with or without a vasoconstrictive agent (such as adrenaline) - coupled with Hyaluronidase have been the standard care to provide painless surgery while minimizing the possible risks such as increased intraocular pressure (IOP), brainstem anesthesia, toxic reaction and ocular blood flow changes. These iatrogenic-induced vascular dysfunctions have been also suggested to play a role in intra-operatory vision loss (a "wipe-out" phenomenon) in patients with advanced glaucoma.

The rationale for the use of epinephrine in retrobulbar anesthesia is to slow absorption of the anesthetic in general circulation and thus to achieve a longer effect in the orbit. However, studies on ocular blood flow after adrenaline-containing compounds have consistently showed a decrease in ocular blood flow, thus raising the issue of whether it should be used in patients with known vascular dysfunction, namely glaucoma patients. Nevertheless, there has been no study to verify this claim concerning the safety of non-adrenaline containing anesthetics.

Injecting a pre-determined volume of anesthetic compound behind the globe, regardless of its formulation has also been debated. The orbital pressure increase can lead to a number of adverse reactions, not only increasing IOP but also potentially decreasing vascular input by local compression. In glaucoma for instance, there has been suggested optic nerve sheaths to be less elastic than in healthy individuals, potentially making this structure less compliant to outside compression. These more rigid orbital tissues could also impair the orbit's ability to deal with the iatrogenic increased volume.

As seen, the current concepts on the impact of ocular anesthesiology in the orbit and the vascular supply to the eye are limited to a small number of non-homogeneous studies. We aim to study this impact through a non-invasive, widely established ultrasound based method of ocular blood flow research (color Doppler Imaging). Potentially, our study could help determine a taylor-made choice of the anesthesiology procedure to apply to a specific patient, thereby advancing the current standard of care in ophthalmology.

Conditions

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • Universitaire Ziekenhuizen KU Leuven

    lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

  • Ingeborg Stalmans, MD, PhD · UZ Leuven

Eligibility

Min Age
18 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2013-02-28
Primary Completion
2014-12-31
Completion
2014-12-31

Countries

  • Belgium

Study Locations

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Entities

Diseases

Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT01840215 on ClinicalTrials.gov