Operating room central serous chorioretinopathy.

OBJECTIVES

The operating room is a place of surgical intervention with its accompanying bodily and cognitive strain on the performers. Stress in the operating room may lead to the onset of central serous chorioretinopathy as reported hereby in a retina surgeon and is labeled as operating room central serous chorioretinopathy.

METHODS

The same operator performed the optical coherence tomography scans on one retina surgeon. A masked observer estimated the maximal height of the subretinal fluid.

RESULTS

Central serous chorioretinopathy recurred four times over a 1-year period 1 -2 days after a stressful day in the operating room, especially when cases were done under topical or subtenon anesthesia for cataract surgery, vitreous surgery or combined surgeries with complex ocular and medical problems and inability for anesthesia team to intervene. Stress management allowed resolution of subretinal fluid between 3 and 4 weeks. Adopting this strategy, no further attacks were documented by optical coherence tomography for 5 years.

CONCLUSIONS

(1) This is one of a few optical coherence tomography documentation of resolution of central serous chorioretinopathy within 3-4 weeks of its occurrence and its recurrence induced by stress in the operating room; (2) Unassisted topical anesthesia required in patients with complex medical and ocular problems causes more cognitive stress than when surgery is carried under assisted local or general anesthesia (partly due to unexpected ocular or bodily movements); and (3) the available evidence suggests that those overcommitted surgeons (type A personality) may very well be most susceptible to burnout and central serous chorioretinopathy.