ESCRS launches Endophthalmitis Registry and new guidelines

The ESCRS is launching an Endophthalmitis Registry, in a continuation of the society’s effort to reduce the incidence of postoperative endophthalmitis ever further.

“The purpose of the ESCRS Endophthalmitis Registry is to identify changing patterns in the breakthrough of bacteria that cause endophthalmitis following cataract surgery and to track the changing patterns in the antibiotic resistance of those organisms,” ESCRS president, Peter Barry FRCS, told ET Today in an interview.

He noted that there has been a drop in the number of endophthalmitis cases across Europe in recent years because of the wide adoption of intracameral antibiotic prophylaxis in cataract procedures following the publication of the ESCRS Endophthalmitis study in 2007.

“Therefore you have a relatively small number of cases out there, but we would like to have information and the aim of the registry is to gain that information across Europe by having a single registry based at the ESCRS office in Dublin,” Dr Barry said.

The registry is now ready for use and the plan is for it to run indefinitely, continually accumulating information so long as endophthalmitis is a problem, he said. Surgeons participating in the registry will submit an initial anonymised report for all suspect cases of endophthalmitis by email. A month later the registry’s computer will send an inquiry to the surgeon about whether or not it was a case of endophthalmitis.

The ESCRS has also published a new 2013 “ESCRS Guidelines on Prevention, Investigation and Management of Post-Operative Endophthalmitis”. Copies are available at the ESCRS Resource Centre.