Abstract
Axial length (AL) is a significant indicator of eyeball development, but reports on the overall status of axial development in congenital cataract (CC) patients and its relationship with patient demographics, such as age, sex, and laterality, are rare. We prospectively investigated the AL of 1,586 patients ≤18 years old and undergoing cataract surgery in China from January 2005 to December 2014. Of these 3,172 eyes, a logarithmic correlation between AL and age in CC patients was calculated, and an age of approximately 2 years was found to be a turning point in the growth rate of AL. A considerable variation was observed in CC patients of the same age. Furthermore, 2–6 years old boys had longer AL than girls. The AL of affected eye in unilateral patients was longer than that of the contralateral eye in 2–6 years age group and longer than that of eye in bilateral CC patients in all age groups. These findings indicate that the development of the length of eyeballs in CC patients is influenced by multiple factors in addition to age. A full understanding of the distribution of AL may provide a useful reference for judging the timing of surgery in CC patients.
Highlights
Axial length (AL) is a significant indicator of eyeball development and correlates with heredity[1], development[2,3], nutrition, and other environmental factors
Large sample study, we aimed to investigate the overall status of axial development in CC patients younger than 18 years old and the relationship between AL development and patient demographics, including age, sex, and laterality, and our results provide a useful reference for the accurate timing of intraocular lens (IOL) implantation and CC treatment
The right eye was arbitrarily selected to represent the AL of bilateral individuals, because no difference of AL of two eyes in bilateral CC patients were found by paired T-test (t = 1.353, P = 0.176)
Summary
Axial length (AL) is a significant indicator of eyeball development and correlates with heredity[1], development[2,3], nutrition, and other environmental factors. Most of the previous studies related to CC in clinical practice have proposed a treatment plan solely according to the age of the patient[14], regardless of the actual development of AL, which may result in better and more precise treatment This approach has resulted in significant variability in the treatment effects observed in pediatric CC patients. In this prospective, large sample study, we aimed to investigate the overall status of axial development in CC patients younger than 18 years old and the relationship between AL development and patient demographics, including age, sex, and laterality, and our results provide a useful reference for the accurate timing of IOL implantation and CC treatment
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