Postoperative Pain After Vitreoretinal Surgery

Post-operative pain (POP) is frequently underestimated, mostly after eye surgery, a type of surgery in which trauma is limited and pain is not investigated as patients are often discharged from the hospital within a few hours. Good POP management can improve clinical outcome and patients' satisfaction and constitutes essential criteria for hospital discharge after day-case or ambulatory surgery. Little data are available particularly for POP after vitreoretinal surgery (VRS).

The investigators will conduct a 1-year retrospective study on patients undergoing VRS at "Careggi Hospital" , a teaching University Hospital in Italy. The aim of the study will be to observe the amount of POP after VRS, its time course, factors associated with its appearance and finally the efficacy of the pain protocol that is in use.

Pain will be evaluated according to the "Numerical Rating Scale" (NRS), a 11-point numeric scale ranging from '0' which represents "no pain" and '10' which represents extreme pain at several intervals after surgery. Analgesic consumption (in terms of type and amount of analgesics) and the efficacy of the analgesic protocol in use will also be recorded.

Factors possibly associated with POP (such as duration of surgery, presence of comorbidities, ASA physical status, age, type of anesthesia (locoregional or general anesthesia)) will be analyzed.

The associations between the principal outcome (amount of POP) and risk factors will be evaluated using a simple and multiple logistic regression model.

Inclusion criteria

• Vitreoretinal surgery

Exclusion criteria

• ASA IV