Abstract
Purpose To determine the effects of cataract surgery and preoperative factors on the vision-related quality of life (QOL) in patients with retinitis pigmentosa (RP). Materials and Methods This was a prospective, interventional study of 54 patients diagnosed with RP. The 25-item National Eye Institute Visual Function Questionnaire (NEI VFQ-25) was used to determine the QOL before and after the cataract surgery. The correlations between the scores of the questionnaire and the best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA), macular structure, and degree of improvement of the NEI VFQ-25 scores were also determined. Results Statistically significant improvements were observed in the BCVA and all of the NEI VFQ-25 subscale scores except for color vision. The improvement of general vision was the largest. The postoperative BCVA of the better-seeing eye was more strongly and significantly correlated with the postoperative NEI VFQ-25 scores than that of the worse-seeing eye. All of the postoperative NEI VFQ-25 scores were significantly correlated with the length of the ellipsoid zone (EZ) of the photoreceptors. No significant correlation was found between the preoperative general vision, near vision, mental health scores, and EZ length. All of the preoperative NEI VFQ-25 scores except the social function and mental health scores were negatively and significantly correlated with the degree of improvement of the NEI VFQ-25 score. The EZ length was significantly correlated with the degree of improvement of the NEI VFQ-25 scores of the general vision, distance vision, mental health, dependency, and composite 9 scores. Conclusions Cataract surgery can significantly improve the NEI VFQ-25 scores in RP patients. The EZ length can be used to predict the postoperative VFQ scores. We conclude that the NEI VFQ-25 is a useful method to evaluate the impact of cataract surgery on the BCVA in patients with RP.
Highlights
Retinitis pigmentosa (RP) is an inherited retinal disease associated with a progressive degeneration of the photoreceptors and subsequent irreversible reduction of visual function
We investigated whether postoperative vision-related quality of life (QOL) could be estimated by evaluating the correlation between these parameters and postoperative NEI VFQ-25
Significant correlations were found between the ellipsoid zone (EZ) length and the degree of improvement in general vision, distance vision, mental health, dependency, and composite 9 score
Summary
Retinitis pigmentosa (RP) is an inherited retinal disease associated with a progressive degeneration of the photoreceptors and subsequent irreversible reduction of visual function. The prevalence of RP is about 1 in 4000 worldwide, and cataracts are a major complication in RP patients of any hereditary form [1, 2]. It has been reported that the age of onset of cataracts in RP patients is younger than that of normal individuals [3]. The cataracts can have a negative impact on the quality of life (QOL) of RP patients. Other research studies on the visual functions of RP individuals before and after cataract surgery have been published, but a search of Medline/PubMed did not extract any publications reporting on the impact of cataract surgery on the vision-related quality of life (QOL) in patients with RP.
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