Blood pressure change during phacoemulsification and femtosecond laser-assisted cataract surgery

AIM： To evaluate blood pressure（BP） changes during phacoemulsification（PC） and femtosecond laser（FSL）-assisted cataract surgery.METHODS： A retrospective chart review was performed for all patients who received traditional phacoemulsification surgery（PC group） and FSL-assisted cataract surgery（FS group） from July 2013 to December 2014. Totally 206 eyes from 133 patients receiving the two types of procedures were included.Patient characteristics（age, gender, and hypertension history）, pre- and post-operative BPs were collected.RESULTS： The pro-operative systolic and diastolic BPs（mm Hg） were 124.89 ±20.48 vs 126.98 ±16.85, and71.88 ±9.81 vs 73.56 ±10.03, in PC and FS groups,respectively. While the post-operative systolic and diastolic BPs（mm Hg） were 130.13 ±22.59 vs 134.77 ±17.52, and 73.41 ±11.62 vs 78.89 ±12.2, in PC and FS groups, respectively. Paired-sample t-tests showed obvious systolic and diastolic BP elevations in FS group after surgery（P =0.001 and 0.007） and no reliability in PC group（P =0.094 and 0.359）. A linear regression model revealed systolic and diastolic BP elevations,which were related to longer surgical times for FS group（P =0.008 and 0.021）. Age, gender, and hypertension history were not correlated with blood pressure elevation in either group.CONCLUSION： BP increases but at a limited level after FSL-assisted cataract surgery compared to traditional phacoemulsification