The Impact of an Ocular Prosthesis on the Quality of Life, Perceived Stress, and Clinical Adaptation of Anophthalmic Patients: A Clinical and Longitudinal Trial

Abstract

Purpose This prospective study evaluated and correlated the impact of ocular prostheses on quality of life and stress with socioeconomic level and clinical characteristics. The clinical difficulties and perceptions of patients after ocular rehabilitation were evaluated. Materials and Methods Anophthalmic patients (at least 18 years of age) who were not users of ocular prostheses were recruited. The Medical Outcomes Short‐Form Health Survey (SF‐36) and Perceived Stress Scale (PSS‐10) questionnaires were administered before and after 3 and 6 months of prosthesis installation. Clinical characteristics, difficulties, and perceptions were evaluated by quantitative and descriptive analysis (7 days, 3 months, 6 months). Data were analyzed by the Friedman test and Pearson Correlation test (α = 0.05). Results The final sample consisted of 26 patients. Quality of life showed improvement in the “Bodily Pain” and “General Health” domains. Wearing the prosthesis did not influence perceived stress. The clinical evaluation showed clinical discharge over 6 months and presence of pain only at 7 days. A weak correlation occurred between sociodemographic characteristics and the categories “Role‐Physical” (r = 0.423) and “General Health” (r = 0.494); cause of anophthalmia and “Role‐Physical” (r = –0.471); and type of surgery and “General Health” (r = –0.432). Conclusions According to the results of this study, the provision of ocular prostheses showed positive influence in 2 domains of quality of life and weak correlations with socioeconomic level, type of surgery, and cause of loss. Ocular rehabilitation did not influence stress. The use and care of the prostheses did not affect tissue inflammation, but the discharge was continuous.

Psychosocial distress and psychological adjustment in patients with ocular loss: a framework analysis

“…It was observed that both physical impairment and disfigured appearance could adversely impact psychological well-being. Our findings were consistent with previous studies on this field [ 4 , 19 – 21 ], which have noted that psychological well-being was not only affected by the severity of disfigurement but also other influential factors including demographic data (age and sex), education level, socioeconomic status, marital status, etiology, self-perceived appearance, as well as perceptions of social support and acceptance. Females tended to suffer from higher degree of depression, requiring more social support than males [ 19 ].…”

Conjunctival sac microbiome in anophthalmic patients: Flora diversity and the impact of ocular prosthesis materials

“…In China alone, there are at least 300000 patients without eyes, and the population incidence rate can reach 0.3‰; Statistics show that in most cases, the common reason for the occurrence of anophthalmia was due to the eye enucleation of the eyeball in the treatment of severe terminal eye diseases such as trauma, tumor and congenital malformation of the eye ( Saeed et al., 2006 ; Gupta and Padmanabhan, 2012 ; Yousuf et al., 2012 ; Ibanga et al., 2013 ; Zhao et al., 2013 ). Aphthalmia can cause a great burden on the life and work of anophthalmic patients; wearing ocular prosthesis is often the main solution, which help anophthalmic patients to repair esthetics and function, contribute social reintegration and improve their quality of life ( Goiato et al., 2014 ; de Caxias et al., 2019 ; Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine et al., 2019 ; Makrakis et al., 2021 ). The wearing of OP significantly contributes to patients’ aesthetic satisfaction.…”

Clinical Congenital Anophthalmos and Microphthalmos—Experiences of Patients and Their Parents after More than 10 Years of Treatment

“…An important aspect here is the young age at which the surgical intervention had taken place, because the degree of disability and the age of the patient can influence the individual acceptance of the anophthalmos [27,28]. The contribution of the expression of visual disability was also reported by Avery and Hardy, 2014.…”