method and said it greatly
improved the patient experience.
He did his homework, reviewed
the research and determined it
was the best treatment for most
of his patients.
After implanting the IOL, Dr.
Boyd uses a cannula to inject 0.2
cc of the mixture containing 2
antibiotics inferiorly in the vitre-
ous cavity by a trans-zonular
approach. He says some surgeons
inject the solution through the
scleral, but the trans-zonular approach takes advantage of an already
open eye and doesn't subject patients to the potential pain of a needle-
stick. If he's not using the dropless technique, he injects vancomycin
into the eye's anterior chamber.
Dr. Boyd says infection rates are equivalent among patients who apply
post-op drops and those who receive intraocular injections. "But by
going dropless," he says, "we can save the patient a lot of money and the
hassle of doing the drops, which is nice."
That effort to improve patient satisfaction and save them the eye
drop regimen's out-of-pocket expense comes at a price. The dropless
formulation that Dr. Boyd uses costs $25 per dose, a significant
increase to case costs in a specialty with a slim profit margin. Is the
additional expense worth it? That depends on a host of factors that
leadership at individual facilities must consider. Dr. Boyd knew going
dropless would increase his case costs. He was prepared to eat the
added expense to improve the post-op experience for his patients and
eliminate the possibility of them failing to complete the full drop regi-
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O C T O B E R 2 0 1 5 | O U T P A T I E N TS U R G E R Y. N E T
z LINE OF DEFENSE Prepping the
eye before surgery is just one way to
lower the risk of post-op infection.
