Assessing Patient Comfort, Anxiety, and Satisfaction during Cycloplegic Refraction: Comparing Conventional Drops with Rapid-Onset Cycloplegics

Purpose: To assess the comfort, anxiety, and satisfaction between conventional cycloplegics (e.g., cyclopentolate) and rapid-onset cycloplegics (e.g., tropicamide with phenylephrine) drops during cycloplegic refraction.Methods: This randomized controlled trial was conducted at Al Shifa Trust Eye Hospital, Sukkur, enrolling participants aged 10-20 years selected through simple random sampling.Eligible participants were healthy participants within ±1D refractive error, while those with systemic or ocular pathology were excluded.All underwent cycloplegic refraction assessment and a structured questionnaire on anxiety, discomfort, communication, and overall experience during cycloplegic refraction, using a Likert scale and a Visual Analogue Scale for comfort.Results: A total of 83 participants were enrolled, with a mean age of 15.54 ± 2.97 years; 49.4% were females and 50.6% males.The Visual Analogue Scale showed higher comfort ratings overall, with 25.3% reporting "Very Comfortable."Comparison between Cyclopentolate and Tropicamide with phenylephrine groups using the Mann-Whitney U test revealed significant differences in anxiety (p=0.029),relaxation during waiting (p