Unilateral pediatric cataract of uncertain cause

Abstract

AbstractPurpose To report the surgical results of unilateral pediatric cataract of uncertain cause and find out factors related to better outcome.Methods We reviewed the medical records of 39 patients who underwent surgery for unilateral pediatric cataracts of no known cause. All patients underwent primary Intraocular lens implantation, and postoperatively, they were treated for amblyopia with glasses or monocular patch. Postoperative final visual acuity levels greater than 20/30 were considered ‘good’. Statistical analysis was carried out to determine factors affecting surgical outcome.Results The mean age was 5.9 ± 1.8 years (range 2.6 to 9.2) at the time of surgery. The mean final postoperative visual acuity was 0.47 ± 0.54 logMAR (range 0.00 to 2.00). In all, 46.2% (18 of 39) achieved a ‘good’ visual acuity. The ‘good’ visual acuity was significantly associated with better preoperative visual acuity, smaller amount of preoperative refractive error, smaller amount of preoperative refractive error difference between the operated eye and the fellow eye, and absence of strabismus (p = 0.002, 0.010, 0.008, and 0.014 respectively). Only preoperative visual acuity was significant in the multivariate analysis (p = 0.028). The preoperative visual acuity of 20/160 or better was found to increase the chance of achieving ‘good’ visual acuity by 8.66‐fold (95% CI 1.26 to 59.38).Conclusion Preoperative visual acuity is the most important prognostic indicator for surgical outcome of unilateral pediatric cataract of uncertain cause.