Anticipated and Actual Pain Intensity in Patients Receiving Intravitreal Injections: A Cross Sectional Study.

The study was done in a single outpatient eye clinic and patients were invited as they arrived, so the findings may not apply to other injection settings. The study was exploratory and did not calculate a sample size in advance. Patients who used systemic analgesics or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, had mental illness, mental retardation, or dementia, or had pseudophakia were excluded, so the results may not apply to many patients receiving injections. Most participants were returning for repeated injections, so patients having their first injection may be underrepresented. Anxiety and pain catastrophizing were not measured, so they may explain differences in pain ratings. Pain was rated 5 to 10 minutes after injection only, not at later times when patients are at home.

The paper states that the authors have nothing to report and declare no conflicts of interest.

Do not conclude that intravitreal injections are painless because mean scores were 2.58 and 3.13 on a 0 to 10 scale. 68 of 115 patients reported more pain than they anticipated, and the study did not test whether patient education or extra analgesia changes pain.