News reports from the conference

Snoring alerts eye surgeons to unexpected head movement

When a patient starts snoring when undergoing ocular surgery with local anesthetic and intravenous sedation, be prepared for unexpected head movement that could lead to possible complications.

That's the message from Dr. Colin McCannel, associate professor of medicine at the Jules Stein Eye Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles who presented research done while he was a resident at the Mayo Medical School in Rochester, NY.

In the prospective, observational study a total of 230 vitreoretinal surgical cases were evaluated. During 37 of these procedures, snoring was noted and in 18 cases the patient moved their head suddenly (48.6%) in contrast only two instances of unexpected head movement were noted in the 191 cases where snoring was not observed.

McCannel said the findings from this study means he is now prepared for unexpected head movement when he hears snoring and will push down more firmly on the patient's forehead to keep the head properly positioned.

The study was done in conjunction with Drs. Eric Olson, Mark Donaldson, Sophie Bakri, Jose Pulido and Donna Mueller.