CURRENT TRENDS IN CATARACT AND REFRACTIVE SURGERY IN JAPAN - 1996 SURVEY

A fifth annual survey was carried out by mail in February 1997 to inve stigate the current trends in cataract and refractive surgery in Japan . A questionnaire was sent to 867 ophthalmologist members of the Japan ese Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery. Data received from 440 (50.7%) of the recipients were cross-analyzed and compared with those from the previous surveys. For cataract surgery, there have been tren ds toward more surgical procedures performed by a surgeon, shorter per iod of hospitalization, and increased number of outpatient surgery. Ni nety percent of respondents preferred phacoemulsification, 42% employe d the self-sealing wound closure technique, and 26% used topical anest hesia for phacoemulsification. As for refractive surgery, surgeons rem ained rather conservative, with 26% and 6% of surgeons doing astigmati c keratotomy and refractive keratotomy, respectively. (C) 1998 Japanes e Ophthalmological Society.