PATIENT-PHYSICIAN FACE MASKING'S INFLUENCE ON THE POST-INTRAVITREAL INJECTION ENDOPHTHALMITIS.

Abstract

The authors sought to determine if universal face mask guidelines implemented during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic significantly influenced the incidence of endophthalmitis following intravitreal injections (IVI). This retrospective cohort study reviewed the electronic health records from a retina-only practice located in Michigan. This study evaluated patients receiving IVIs over two distinct time periods of April 2019 to March 2020 and April 2020 to March 2021, which comprised our unmasked and masked groups, respectively. The authors then calculated the incidence of endophthalmitis following IVI and evaluated the cases of post-injection endophthalmitis for both time periods. A total of 121,384 IVIs performed over the 2-year period of interest. Of these, 63,114 were unmasked and 58,270 were masked patient encounters. A total of 46 post-injection endophthalmitis cases were identified. Of these, 29 cases were from the unmasked period and 17 were from the masked period. This resulted in an incidence of endophthalmitis of 0.046% and 0.038% in the masked and unmasked groups, respectively. This difference did not rise to the level of statistical significance ( P = 0.1336). This study suggests that the incidence of post-injection endophthalmitis was not influenced by the implementation of ophthalmologist-patient face masking after IVI during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic.