Dropless Cataract Surgery: An Overview

Risk reduction and the attainment of good outcomes in contemporary cataract surgery depend in part on patient compliance with a postoperative regimen of topical eye drops. Topical drops are expensive and challenging to instill properly for patients. The consequences of noncompliance or poor compliance can be significant for the patient (in the case of a complication) and for society (in the case of development of antibiotic resistance). For all of these reasons, new approaches that reduce the need for topical therapy are beginning to emerge, including intracameral injection, sustained or slow-release drug delivery mechanisms, and the recently introduced “Dropless cataract surgery,” which involves intravitreal injection of single-use, compounded combination of antibiotics and corticosteroids. This paper is a review of the rationale for reducing topical therapy in cataract surgery prophylaxis, and what is known to date about the efficacy and safety of the dropless approach.