Imagine waking up after surgery to find out you have lost your sight—permanently. Although rare, postoperative visual loss is a well-recognized complication of anesthesia and surgery that is more common after certain types of procedures and in some groups of patients, according to a study in the November issue of Anesthesia & Analgesia, official journal of the International Anesthesia Research Society (IARS).
The new research confirms that this "rare but potentially devastating" complication is most frequent after cardiac surgery or spinal fusion procedures. It also reports a higher-than-expected rate of postoperative visual loss after other common surgeries, as well as in children.
Postoperative Visual Loss Occurs in about 2 of 10,000 Surgeries
Using a large nationwide database, Yang Shen, M.A., M.S., and colleagues of The University of Chicago analyzed more than 5.6 million patients undergoing common surgical procedures between 1996 and 2005. The overall rate of postoperative visual loss was low and decreased significantly during the 10-year period studied: from approximately 3 to 2 cases per 10,000 surgeries.
The risk of postoperative visual loss was highest after heart surgery, nearly 9 out of 10,000 procedures; followed by spinal fusion surgery, 3 out of 10,000 procedures. The researchers were surprised to find lower but still significant rates of postoperative visual loss after other common procedures as well: about 1 to 2 out of 10,000 patients undergoing hip replacement, knee replacement, or colorectal surgery. At the other end of the scale, for patients undergoing appendectomy, the risk was only 1 out of every 100,000.