You have full access to this open access article. Ophthalmic surgery is assumed to be safe, but some operations require general anaesthesia which is associated with a number of potential complications.
In addition, adverse cardiovascular symptoms, such as severe slowing of the heart rate and, in some cases, cardiac arrest may occur due to the surgical technique.
The aim of this study was to determine whether it is possible to predict the occurrence of oculocardiac reflex OCR based on heart rate variability HRV analysis for autonomic nervous system ANS activity assessment measured prior to the induction of anaesthesia and immediately before eyeball traction.
Fifty-two adults of both sexes age range 18—65 years with American Society of Anesthesiologists ASA physical status class 1 and 2 were enrolled in this study. All patients had underwent episcleral buckling under general anaesthesia. High-frequency HF changes in HRV are thought to reflect parasympathetic impulse transmission, whereas low-frequency LF changes reflect both sympathetic and parasympathetic activity.
However, in practice, LF changes can be considered to reflect sympathetic changes. Based on that, frequency domain HRV parameters from 5-min Holter electrocardiogram recordings before anaesthesia induction and before eyeball traction were used for the analysis. The statistical analysis also included patient age, sex, ASA status and preanaesthesia and premanoeuvre heart rate and blood pressure.
