Standards & Guidance

Cataract surgery in patients with dementia is recognised as a complex area of decision-making and peri-operative considerations. In the UK, there are over 850,000 people living with dementia, set to rise to 1.5 million people by 2040 and is now a recognised worldwide public health priority. This Concise Practice Point highlights the importance in providing cataract surgery to dementia patients and aims to assist ophthalmologists in designing systems to appropriately manage and consent these patients.

Cerebral Visual Impairment is the commonest cause of visual impairment in children in the developed nations. It is a common condition which every ophthalmologist may expect to encounter in a paediatric ophthalmology clinic. This CVI CPP focuses on relevant questions drawn from roundtable discussions with orthoptists, optometrists, ophthalmologists, parents, teachers of the visually impaired and third sector organisations. It represents current understanding of the topic and acknowledges the evolving nature of practice. It will be regularly reviewed in the light of emerging evidence.

Several changes in vitreoretinal (VR) practice have questioned the traditional practice of surgery only in more advanced cases with reduced vision, and earlier surgery has been advocated. In addition, a common dilemma in patients with no or minimal symptoms, particularly in the presence of advanced ERMs, is the risk of progression. In this Concise Practice Point, we critically appraise published literature to produce evidence-based recommendations on criteria for referral, decision to operate, follow up and surgical technique used by vitreoretinal surgeons.

This document describes the data set for cataract surgery. The Royal College of Ophthalmologists is the content sponsor for the Cataract National Data Set. It was originally published in April 2010 by the Information Standards Board (ISB) as an inherited information standard based on good evidence of its use a) in electronic cataract care records and b) to support national audit, benchmarking, research, and quality improvement. It is approved for use for those purposes within units providing cataract surgery. However, some amendments are required to fully align the data set with other Information Standards as specified in the Data Dictionary and to make it fit for use to communicate information between systems i.e. for interoperability. The data set specification is published on the ISB website. Since 2010 the RCOphth has responded to requests for change to the data set and these are logged in the data set file. The data set used by the National Cataract Audit is a subset of this full data set.

Summarises the referral pathway for children who fail vision screening aged 4 to 5 years as part of the childhood vision screening programme.

A single point of reference for busy clinicians when managing these complex patients from differential diagnosis, through long-term management, to discharge. It also covers provision of support for patients and carers throughout and beyond clinical care pathways.

In this Concise Practice Point, we critically appraise published evidence to produce evidence-based recommendations on Intraoperative Antimicrobial Prophylaxis in Elective Cataract Surgery Patients.

This document provides advice to clinicains on referring suspected ocular oncology cases to the nationally designated ocular oncology centres.

These guidelines cover primary angle-closure only and specifically excludes secondary disease such as that resulting from uveitis or neovascularization. It is primarily for clinicians involved in eye care in the community and in hospital eye services and aims to inform clinicians. 1. What is the accuracy of current diagnostic tests 2. What is the effectiveness of different interventions 3. When to refer to hospital eye services 4. When to discharge to community Executive Summary