PATIENT SATISFACTION FOLLOWING VITREORETINAL SURGERY

A postal questionnaire was used to study patient satisfaction in 149 consecutive patients undergoing vitreoretinal surgery in Southampton. Of the 123 patients who responded, 70 (60%) felt that their vision improved following surgery. Fifty-eight patients (47%) stated that their vision was not as good as they had hoped it would be, and multiple logistic regression analysis showed that this response reflected a poorer visual outcome in this group. Despite this, 116 (94%) of those replying stated that the operation had been worth while. All 5 patients who felt that their operations had not been worth while had undergone retinal detachment surgery. This high level of satisfaction may be attributable to realistic expectations, as 116 patients (94%) replied that the procedures had been adequately explained.