View 2019 Abstracts

The aim of this investigation is to evaluate ocularists’ views on orbital implants, secondary surgical procedures, patient satisfaction and cooperation between ophthalmologists and ocularists. A similar survey was performed 20 years ago by the senior author. Further we want to see whether there have been any changes in the management of anopthalmic patients in a large tertial referral centre in Germany.

A 18-item questionnaire was sent to 23 centres in Germany including more than 40 ocularists. For analysis of possible existing changes of treatment and treatment-related problems the results have been compared with those 20 years ago.

From the ocularists’ view, primary implants are generally preferred – distribution and exact numbers will be presented. Outcome in regards of fitting depends strongly upon surgical procedure and postoperative course. Almost all patients have been fitted glass prostheses. Only a small number of patients require secondary surgical procedures, which then results in a more favourable success rate of about 80%. Most of the ocularists consider the relationship between ocularists and ophthalmologists as satisfying worthy of improvement.

Our results demonstrate that there is a high demand for fitting ocular prostheses. The majority of our patients benefited from an improved prosthetic fitting of ocularists. In comparison to our results 20 years ago, cooperation between ocularists and ophthalmologists has improved. The use of primary DFG has increased and has become one of the favorably implants; German ocularists favor dermal fat grafts. Other trends of this survey performed 20 years ago were confirmed, including further need for improving cooperation between ocularists and ophthalmologists.