Is a mobile surgical bus a safe setting for cataract surgery? A four-year retrospective study of intraoperative complications

摘要

Phaco-emulsification requires specialized staff and equipment which are not widely available in rural centres and this presents a barrier to the uptake of cataract surgery in rural parts of developed countries. In New Zealand, the mobile surgical bus (MSB, Fig. 1) service is a novel solution to this problem by providing a platform for cataract surgery in remote rural centres (please see http://www. mobilesurgical.co.nz for more details). To address the concerns of some clinicians about the safety of undertaking cataract surgery on a mobile unit we carried out a retrospective review of electronic case notes of cataract surgery on the MSB performed between June 2004 and May 2008, and compared the findings with the reported complication rates from the Auckland Cataract Study (ACS).