Long term outcomes of bilateral congenital and developmental cataracts operated in Maharashtra, India. Miraj pediatric cataract study III.

AIM

To study long term outcome of bilateral congenital and developmental cataract surgery.

SUBJECTS

258 pediatric cataract operated eyes of 129 children.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Children who underwent pediatric cataract surgery in 2004-8 were traced and examined prospectively in 2010-11. Demographic and clinical factors were noted from retrospective chart readings. All children underwent visual acuity estimation and comprehensive ocular examination in a standardized manner. L. V. Prasad Child Vision Function scores (LVP-CVF) were noted for before and after surgery.

STATISTICS

Statistical analysis was done with SPSS version 16 including multi-variate analysis.

RESULTS

Children aged 9.1 years (std dev 4.6, range 7 weeks-15 years) at the time of surgery. 74/129 (57.4%) were boys. The average duration of follow-up was 4.4 years (stddev 1.6, range 3-8 years). 177 (68.6%) eyes had vision <3/60 before surgery, while 109 (42.2%) had best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) >6/18 and 157 (60.9%) had BCVA >6/60 3-8 years after surgery. 48 (37.2%) had binocular stereoacuity <480 sec of arc by TNO test. Visual outcome depended on type of cataract (P = 0.004), type of cataract surgery (P < 0.001), type of intra-ocular lens (P = 0.05), age at surgery (P = 0.004), absence of post-operative uveitis (P = 0.01) and pre-operative vision (P < 0.001), but did not depend on delay (0.612) between diagnosis and surgery. There was a statistically significant improvement for all the 20 questions of the LVP-CVF scale (P < 0.001).

CONCLUSION

Pediatric cataract surgery improved the children's visual acuity, stereo acuity and vision function. Developmental cataract, use of phacoemulsification, older children and those with better pre-operative vision had betterlong-termoutcomes.