From 2019 to 2020, ophthalmic procedures in seniors decreased by 17.9%

There was a notable decrease in common ophthalmic procedures among Medicare beneficiaries during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a study published Feb. 6 in JAMA Ophthalmology.

Raziyeh Mahmoudzadeh, M.D., from the Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, and colleagues estimated changes in the rates of the 10 most prevalent ophthalmic procedures among Medicare beneficiaries during the COVID-19 pandemic in a retrospective U.S. cross-sectional study. The analyses included 3,879,533 procedure entries in 2019 and 3,181,439 entries in 2020.

The researchers found that from 2019 to 2020, there was a −17.9% overall decrease in the rates of the 10 ophthalmic procedures. The largest reduction was seen for laser peripheral iridotomy, while the smallest decrease was seen for eye drug injections (−43.6 and −1.5%, respectively). There was a reduction of −23.0% in cataract surgery. Regionally, the greatest reductions in cataract surgery occurred in the Northeast (−27.9%).

“Our results demonstrated an overall decrease of 17.9% in the rates of the 10 most prevalent ophthalmic procedures during the pandemic,” the authors write. “This reduction appears less substantial compared with other fields of medicine, like ear, nose and throat, where up to 98% reduction in volume of surgical procedures was reported.”

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