AIM: To determine the patient-related risk factors for pain during phacoemulsification.

METHODS: Retrospective case-control study. A total of 62 patients(62 eyes)diagnosed as cataract in the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University from December 2023 to January 2024 were included. The numeric rating scale was used to assess the pain level within 5 min postoperatively. The highest pain value was used as the primary outcome during the procedure. Based on pain values, patients were divided into pain group(n=25)and pain-free group(n=37). Subsequently, patients in the pain group were further divided into mild(n=16), moderate(n=7), and severe groups(n=2). Spearman correlation and Logistic regression analysis were conducted to determine risk factors for pain during the phacoemulsification.

RESULTS: Binary Logistic regression showed preoperative sleep durations and times of operations were important risk factors for intraoperative pain(all P<0.05). Spearman analysis showed that intraoperative pain was negatively correlated with sleep duration(r_s=-0.386, P=0.002), and positively correlated with times of operations(r_s=0.421, P<0.001). The results of the ordinal Logistic regression analysis showed that for every additional hour of sleep, the likelihood of experiencing one higher level of intraoperative pain decreased by 37.60%(OR=0.376, P=0.014). In contrast, the times of operations did not show a statistically significant difference(P=0.083). Receiver operating characteristic curve showed a joint prediction model of sleep duration and operative times with an area under the curve of 0.809, 84% sensitivity, and 73% specificity.

CONCLUSION: The intraoperative pain during phacoemulsification is negatively correlated with sleep duration and positively correlated with times of operations.