Tetracaine Effect on Pain Control within the First Day after Trans-Epithelial Photorefractive Keratectomy

This study was carried out to evaluate the effect of non-preserved tetracaine 0.5% on pain alleviation in the first 24 hr after Trans-epithelial Photorefractive Keratectomy (TPRK) excimer laser surgery.

This quasi-experimental study was conducted on 50 patients who were candidates for TPRK surgery using SCHWIND AMARIS 1050RS (eye-tech-solutions, Germany) excimer laser. One eye randomly received standard treatment including the eye drops of betamethasone, chloramphenicol, artificial tear, diclofenac, and diclofenac tablet (25 mg daily), and the fellow eye received standard treatment plus non-preserved tetracaine 0.5% drop every 4 hr. Post-operative pain was the main outcome measure, and the secondary outcome measures including burning sensation, epiphora, foreign body sensation, and photophobia were compared using Fisher’s exact test and ANOVA with a significance level of 0.05.

Nineteen patients (38%) were male and 31 (62%) were female. Thirty patients (60%) reported no pain. The numeric scale of pain showed that the severity of pain was 4.4±0.8 for the cases’ eyes and 4.5±0.6 for the controls’ eyes, but the difference was not significant (p=0.75). Also, there was no difference regarding the burning sensation (p=0.49), epiphora (p=0.16), foreign body sensation (p=0.44), and photophobia (p=0.19). No significant difference was noted between the two groups.

Administering the eye drop of non-preserved tetracaine 0.5% every 4 hr had no significant effect on pain alleviation within the first day after TPRK surgery.