Management of acute endophthalmitis in the office setting

Abstract

Evaluation of: Gurbaxani A, Patel CK. Treatment of acute postoperative endophthalmitis without hospital admission: do we dare? J. Infect. 53, 165–166 (2006).Acute endophthalmitis is one of the most feared postoperative complications of eye surgeons. The diagnosis, along with the awareness of the acuteness of the problem, often results in the determination of the final visual outcome. The paper by Gurbaxani and Patel shows that, in the UK, the current standard of care is routine hospital admission following the treatment of endophthalmitis. While dramatic in its title, this case report demonstrates clearly that treatment of this condition in the UK no longer requires admission to the hospital. Although it is only one case report, the author clearly shows a lack of visual or patient benefit of admission to the hospital and even possible harm. While it appears that admission to the hospital has been commonplace in the USA for the past 10 years, it is rare that a patient has to be admitted for treatment following surgery for endophthalmitis.