Although occurring in only 0.4 percent of the 1.35 million people who have cataract surgery each year, the condition is considered very serious because it may lead to blindness. Carl Kupfer, MD, director of the NEI, part of the National Institutes of Health, said the results of the clinical trial should mean fewer surgeries, and shorter or no hospital stays for as many as 5,400 people each year. The trial was designed to determine the role of immediate vitrectomy and intravenous antibiotics in the treatment of endophthalmitis. All study patients received antibiotics injected directly into the affected eye. It was chaired by Bernard H. Doft, M.D., of Retina Vitreous Consultants, Pittsburgh, and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, and the data was collected and analyzed by Sheryl Kelsey, Ph.D., at the University of Pittsburgh.
Light perception is the ability to merely distinguish between light and darkness.
He also said that although intravenous antibiotics have been used for many years to treat endophthalmitis, this study shows that they are not necessary. Therefore, people may avoid not only potentially serious side effects but also the expense of the drugs and the hospital stay required to administer them. Because these findings should lead to immediate public health benefits, the NEI has issued a clinical alert to more than 15,500 ophthalmologists nationwide on the EVS findings. A scientific paper detailing the study's results was submitted to the Archives of Ophthalmology for expedited review, and will be published in the December 1995 issue of the journal. The NEI is the Federal government's lead agency for vision research, and supports more than 75 percent of such research conducted in the United States.