SummaryWe have evaluated the effects of the volume and speed of administration of local anaesthetic during peribulbar anaesthesia. One hundred and forty patients scheduled for cataract surgery were randomly allocated to one of four groups of 35. Each patient received an injection of the same mixture of lignocaine, bupivacaine and hyaluronidase. Patients in group A were given 9 ml at a speed of 5 ml.min À1 , group B were given the same volume at 12 ml.min À1 , group C were given 13.5 ml at 5 ml.min À1 and group D were given 13.5 ml at 12 ml.min À1 . A significantly higher incidence of satisfactory akinesia was found in group D, whose pain score at injection was no higher than for the other groups. Large volumes of local anaesthetic significantly affected intraocular pressure. The incidences of early and late ptosis or diplopia were not affected by either the rate of injection or the volume of local anaesthetic.

Purpose To evaluate whether sperm preparation (swim-up technique) before freezing improves the percentages of sperm motility, sperm viability, and non-apoptotic spermatozoa after freezing-thawing process compared with preparation after cryopreservation. Methods Semen samples from 65 infertile males were equally divided into two aliquots one of which was processed for swim-up prior to cryopreservation and one of which was processed following cryopreservation. Sperm count, motility, and apoptosis index were measured in each group. Result (s) The total sperm count and the total motile sperm count decreased after thawing in both the pre-preparation and non-preparation groups compared with neat semen group (P<0.001). Moreover, the percentage of apoptotic sperm in the pre-preparation group after cryopreservation was lower than that in the non-preparation group (P<0.05), whereas the percentage of vital sperm with progressive motility was higher than that in the pre-preparation group (P<0.001). Conclusion (s) Semen preparation by swim-up before freezing resulted in better sperm quality and fewer apoptotic sperm than sperm preparation after thawing. Therefore, sperm preparation before cryopreservation should be considered in routine sperm cryopreservation.

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