Intraoperative floppy iris syndrome and its association with various concurrent medications, bulbus length, patient age and gender.

PURPOSE: To evaluate the association between intraoperative floppy iris syndrome (IFIS) and concurrent medications containing selective alpha1A receptor antagonists as well as nonselective alpha1-adrenergic receptor antagonists, bulbus length, patient age and gender.

METHODS: We performed a prospective data acquisition of IFIS occurrence and grading, and retrospective evaluation of concurrent medications, bulbus length, patient age and gender of all patients undergoing cataract surgery over a 6-month period.

RESULTS: IFIS was observed in 119 of 947 cases (12.6 %). 31 of those 119 patients (26.1 %) had a concurrent medication with a drug that is associated with a higher risk of causing IFIS. Tamsulosin was the drug most commonly associated with IFIS (n = 11), followed by a combination of drugs (n = 7), doxazosin (n = 4), quetiapine (n = 4), finasterid (n = 2), prothipendyl (n = 2), and mianserin (n = 1). Bulbus length and age did not show any significant association with occurrence or grade of IFIS. Gender distribution among IFIS cases was 57.1 % males (n = 68) and 42.9 % (n = 51) females.

CONCLUSIONS: The occurrence of IFIS has to be expected with a variety of concurrent medications. The number of IFIS cases and the percentage of females in this series are higher compared to previous reports. The observations might be due to a rising awareness of surgeons or to an increasing number of causative medications on the market.