The efficacy of general anesthesia for cataract surgery.

This is a report of 259 consecutive cataract extractions performed under general anesthesia over a two-year period. The age of the patients ranged from 6 to 93 with an average of 71. The purpose of this paper is to reiterate the safety of modern general anesthesia for cataract extraction in the elderly, and to demonstrate it can provide a very soft eye in a completely immobilized patient. It offers the most ideal conditions to the surgeon for lens extraction and careful wound closure without the necessity of retrobulbar block, digital massage or osmotic agents.