C. Fenga et al., Ocular discomfort and conjunctival alterations in operating room workers. A single-institution pilot study, INT A OCCUP, 74(2), 2001, pp. 123-128
Citations number
24
Categorie Soggetti
Envirnomentale Medicine & Public Health","Pharmacology & Toxicology
Journal title
INTERNATIONAL ARCHIVES OF OCCUPATIONAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH
Objectives: The aim of this pilot study was to relate the eye symptoms comp
lained of by subjects working in the operating rooms of a hospital in south
ern Italy, with the observations of alterations of the ocular surface. Meth
ods: An epidemiological study was carried out by a questionnaire aimed at i
nvestigating the prevalence of ocular discomfort symptoms among 213 subject
s working in operating rooms and 40 subjects working in the wards. The inve
stigated symptoms were the following: tiredness, heaviness, burning, rednes
s, tearing, itching, blinking, foreign body sensation, and photophobia. A r
andomised comparative study of the ocular surface and conjunctival cytology
was also carried out, comparing two groups of age- and gender-matched subj
ects. Group 1 included 24 subjects randomly chosen from the operating room
workers with ocular discomfort symptoms; group 2 included ten subjects rand
omly enrolled from hospital personnel working in the wards. Ophthalmologica
l examination of the ocular surface was performed on each subject in the fo
llowing order: slit-lamp examination, break-up time (BUT) of the pre-cornea
l tear him, corneal fluorescein stain, lachrymal basal secretion test, conj
unctival impression cytology. Results: A high prevalence (72.3%) of ocular
discomfort symptoms was reported by operating room workers, while in ward p
ersonnel the prevalence was 55% (P = 0.04). The ocular tests showed that th
e conjunctival features and BUT were statistically significantly altered in
subjects in group 1. Also, the conjunctival impression cytology study show
ed statistically significant alterations of all the investigated parameters
: specimen cellularity, cell-to-cell contacts, nucleus/cytoplasm ratio, chr
omatin pattern, goblet cell distribution, keratinisation and the total cyto
logical score. Conclusions: Our results show that self-reported eye complai
nts and ocular surface alterations have a high prevalence in subjects worki
ng in the operating rooms. This seems to indicate that the operating room e
nvironment could play a role in the onset of the eye disturbances.