Rationale and background

It is standard practice to put patients on tapering doses of topical steroids after all forms of cataract surgeries. It has been our experience that we can often switch patients to NSAID drops after a week of steroid-antibiotic drops after uncomplicated cataract surgery. This is essentially done to avoid side-effects of topical steroids like secondary glaucoma, rebound iritis etc. In our practice we have been replacing steroids with NSAIDs primarily to avoid rebound iritis in patients who had this complication in the first eye. It then dawned upon us that topical NSAIDs could have an extended role in post-cataract surgery scenario and we may be able to avoid topical steroids altogether in this context. This study is proposed to establish as evidence that modern NSAIDs may safely replace steroids one week after uncomplicated cataract surgeries.

This study is a prelude to another study which will question whether steroids are required even during the first week after clean Phacoemulsification.

Relevant data is not available for Indian population – which is also an incentive for the study.

Aims and objectives

Primary objective of the study is to answer the question: “Are steroids required to control post-operative inflammation after uncomplicated phacoemulsification surgery?”

We will also be collecting OCT data to look at preliminary evidence as to whether the incidence of CME is different between the two broad treatment groups – those with steroid followed by NSAID and those treated with steroids throughout the course of follow up.