Outcomes of Cataract Surgery at a Referral Center

PURPOSE: To report the outcomes of cataract surgery at a large referral eye hospital and to identify factors associated with less than excellent visual outcomes. METHODS: Hospital records of patients, who had undergone age-related cataract extraction (1,285 procedures) within a two-year period were sampled randomly for 353 patients (405 eyes) and baseline characteristics were recorded. Up to three causes of visual loss (contributory reasons) were considered and the principal cause of “less than excellent outcome,” i.e., best spectacle corrected visual acuity (BSCVA) <20/25 was defined as the primary reason. RESULTS: Mean age of the participants was 68.6 years, and 50.7% of enrolled subjects were female. Phacoemulsification had been performed in 92.1% of cases. Out of 405 eyes, 54%, 78%, and 97% achieved BSCVA of ≥20/25, ≥20/40, and ≥20/200, respectively. Poor visual outcomes were significantly associated with older age (OR: 4.55 for age >70 years), female gender (OR: 4.64), ocular comorbidities (OR: 7.68), surgically challenging eyes (OR: 7.33), long and short eyes (versus eyes with normal axial length, OR: 3.24), and being operated on by a novice surgeon (OR: 2.41). The leading contributory reasons for unfavorable outcome, in descending order were maculopathy (17%), posterior capsule opacification (PCO, 11.8%), corneal opacity (5.7%), and degenerative myopia (5.4%). CONCLUSION: Maculopathy, PCO, corneal opacity, degenerative myopia and ARMD may contribute to unfavorable outcomes in cataract surgery.