IOL Implantation in Children—17 Years' Experience

Abstract

Objectives: To analyse the long-term results following IOL implantation in children and compare the surgical outcome of congenital (monocular or bilateral) and traumatic cataracts. Setting: Department of Ophthalmology, ‘La Fe’ University Hospital, Department of Surgery, Valencia School of Medicine, Valencia, Spain. Study Design: To retrospectively study those children who have been implanted with intraocular lenses following congenital or traumatic cataract attending this Department. Patients: IOL implantation was studied in 178 infants out of the 385 operated on during the last 17 years: 54 were monocular congenital; 21 binocular congenital and 103 were monocular traumatic cataracts. Main Outcome Measures: Visual acuity, demographic data, type of surgery and intra-operative and post-operative complications were recorded and analysed. Results: Monocular congenital cataracts—5.6% achieved a visual acuity greater than 0.8, while 63.9% attained a visual acuity of less than 0.2. Bilateral congenital cataracts—17.2% achieved a visual acuity greater than 0.8, while 24% achieved a visual acuity less than 0.2. Traumatic cataracts—45.6% achieved a visual acuity greater than 0.8, while 7.8% achieved a visual acuity of less than 0.2. Conclusions: The results very much depended upon the aetiology and binocularity of the cataracts. It was found that IOL implantation after traumatic cataracts had the best functional results, while following bilateral congenital cataracts the results were satisfactory compared with unilateral congenital cataracts, which gave the poorest results.