Practice patterns of Canadian Ophthalmological Society members in cataract surgery--2009 survey.

Objective: To establish the practice patterns of the members of the Canadian Ophthalmological Society (COS) in cataract surgery.

Design: A questionnaire consisting of multiple choice questions on cataract surgery practices was sent as an attachment by email to the members of the COS.

Participants: Seven-hundred and seventy-seven COS members with a valid email address in the Society's database.

Methods: A 29-item questionnaire pertaining to cataract surgery practices was sent by email. A reminder email with the attached questionnaire was sent 3 weeks later. The survey data were descriptively analyzed with the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) v 16.0 software and the results compared with those from surveys by the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery and the European Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons.

Results: There were 161 responses. Of these, 30 members did not do any cataract surgery, and a further 8 responses were incomplete, therefore, 123 responses were analyzed. The majority of the respondents (69.1%) were between 40-59 years old. Phacoemulsification was the procedure of choice of all the respondents. Topical anaesthesia with clear corneal incisions was the most popular technique. Only 59.8% of respondents used a NSAID drop while 90.1% used a steroid drop postoperatively.

Conclusions: The practice patterns of the members of the COS for cataract surgery have not been reported before. This survey will serve as a baseline for future ones.