Pediatric traumatic cataracts: 10-year experience of a tertiary referral center

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to evaluate the factors influencing final visual acuity in pediatric traumatic cataracts. METHODS: Data of patients who presented with traumatic cataracts were reviewed retrospectively. We evaluated age at trauma; gender, trauma type, cause, and zone; duration between the time of trauma and cataract surgery; surgical method used; time, location, and type of intraocular lens (IOL) implantation; initial and final best corrected visual acuity (BCVA); amblyopia rate; and complications. RESULTS: In all, 61 eyes of 59 patients aged < 16 years with cataracts after trauma were included. The mean age of the children was 7.2 ± 3.9 years. Primary IOL implantation was performed in 70.9% of eyes. The BCVA was 0.7 LogMAR or better in 5.9% of the 49 eyes in which the visual acuity could be measured at the time of trauma and in 69.1% of 55 eyes in which it could be measured after treatment. Evaluation of factors potentially influencing the final visual acuity revealed that eyes that had undergone posterior capsulotomy (PC) and anterior vitrectomy (AV) during cataract surgery had significantly better final visual acuity compared with eyes that did not undergo these procedures. CONCLUSIONS: In children with posttraumatic cataracts, final visual acuity was not affected by patient age and gender; trauma type, cause, and zone; duration between the time of trauma and cataract surgery; surgical method used; and time, location, and type of intraocular lens (IOL) implantation. Improvements in the final BCVA could be seen only by PC + AV combined with lens aspiration with or without IOL implantation. However, this approach of amblyopia treatment needs to be confirmed by more comprehensive and prospective studies. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12886-022-02427-6.