Telephone follow-up effect in the surgical recovery of elderly undergoing cataract extraction: randomized clinical trial

INTRODUCTION: Cataract surgery has been increasingly frequent, with this, there is need for strategies to assist in the postoperative follow-up to a full recovery and minimizing surgical complications. Considering the vulnerability of the elderly to possible occurrence of postoperative complications, defined as research items the components of the nursing diagnosis surgical recovery delayed, proposed by NANDA-I. OBJECTIVES: To compare the incidence of diagnosis of surgical recovery slows over 04 weeks in the group accompanied by telephone and in the control group; Analyze the telephone follow-up for subjects in cataract surgery after surgery in the experimental group. METHOD: This is a blind randomized clinical trial to evaluate the effectiveness of follow-up by phone the nurse in the surgical recovery in elderly postoperative cataract extraction. The study sample consisted of 95 elderly participants aged 60 or older in the preoperative period of cataract surgery, from the ophthalmology service of two hospitals located in Niterói-RJ, and possessing cell phone or landline available to contact the nurse. The sample was divided into two experiment groups and control, randomly, and was obtained by sample calculation proposed by Pocock (1983). Experiment group had access to intervention Telephone follow-up, which consisted of 04 bonds in the period of 04 weeks, conducted by researcher through a semi-structured connection protocol, as well as access to conventional treatment. The control group had access to conventional treatment without follow-up by telephone. The two groups were followed at the clinic on the 1st, 7th and 30th day postoperatively for 04 weeks to identify the presence of nursing diagnosis surgical recovery delayed. RESULTS: There was absence in the first evaluation of the outcomes analyzed in both groups. In the second evaluation, the occurrence of delayed surgical recovery was 36.2% in the control group and 6.3% in the experiment group (p-0.000). The odds ratio (odds ratio = 0.118; confidence interval = 0.032; 0.437) indicates the possibility of a protective effect of telephone follow-ups against delay in surgical recovery. It was also found that monitoring by phone strongly supports patients in reducing chances of interruption Evidence of occurrences in the healing of surgical area (p-0.000); Reporting discomfort (p-0.001); Pain (p-0.003); Postoperative anxiety feeling (p-0.000), postoperative feeling of concern (p- 0.031), and postoperative infection at the surgical site (p-0.000). The occurrence of these defining characteristics and related factors are significantly lower in the experimental group. CONCLUSION: Patients undergoing intervention Telephone follow-up have significantly reduced chances of presenting delay in surgical recovery. The follow-up of patients with post-discharge guidelines helps especially in safety and understanding of home care, as well as to detect complications early