Negative pressure drainage relieves respiratory discomfort for patients with medical face masks under ocular surgeries during COVID-19

AIM:To report our precaution practices for ocular surgeries under local anesthesia during COVID-19 outbreak and evaluate the respiration situation among the patients with medical face masks under ocular surgeries.METHODS:Sixty Chinese patients needed eye surgery treatment were recruited and given medical face masks as one of the COVID-19 precaution practices during eye surgery with local anesthesia. Oxygen supplementation and negative pressure drainage were applied to relieve the potential respiratory discomfort, and the respiratory comfort score was evaluated.RESULTS:Patients with medical face masks experienced mild to moderate respiratory discomfort with an overall mean score of 2.34±0.73. Supplementation of oxygen together with negative pressure drainage relieved this discomfort(overall mean score of 0.15±0.75; P