Functional and anatomical outcomes of vitreoretinal surgery for posterior segment complications after elective cataract surgery
Accepted 15 October 2006.
Purpose
To assess the outcomes in patients who required 1 or more vitreoretinal interventions for posterior segment complications arising from elective uneventful cataract surgery.
Setting
Tertiary referral center, single-center study.
Methods
A retrospective interventional case series included 56 consecutive patients who were referred for surgical correction of posterior segment complications within 6 months of cataract surgery. The study period was between 1996 and 2003, and the minimum follow-up was 5 months.
Results
Posterior segment complications were resolved with a single surgical intervention in 40 cases (71.4%). Within 5 months of primary surgical correction, persisting or newly arising posterior segment complications were noted in 16 cases (28.6%). After a mean of 2.1 ± 1.4 (SD) additional surgeries, the number of eyes with posterior segment problems decreased to 7 (12.5%) (P = .035). Posterior segment complications requiring more than 1 vitreoretinal intervention included retinal detachment, endophthalmitis, and choroidal hemorrhages. After primary correction surgery, the mean best corrected visual acuity increased from 0.15 ± 0.24 to 0.37 ± 0.33 (P = .001) after a single intervention and to 0.39 ± 0.32 (P>.05) after additional interventions. Although the intraocular pressure (IOP) decreased from 21.8 ± 16.6 mm Hg to 14.9 ± 3.4 mm Hg (P = .008), 4 (7.1%) consecutive vascular optic atrophies occurred. A reduction in corneal transparency was observed in 46.4% of patients before primary surgical correction and 12.5% after primary surgical correction (P<.001).
Conclusions
In many cases, posterior segment complications arising from cataract surgery could be repaired with favorable functional and anatomical outcomes by a single vitreoretinal intervention. Additional surgery, if requested, provided stabilization of the anatomical and functional outcomes.
From the Swiss Eye Institute (Garweg) and the University of Bern (Garweg, Moser), Bern, Switzerland; the Croix-Rousse Hospital, Department of Ophthalmology (Kodjikian), Lyon, France; the Department of Ophthalmology (Halberstadt), Medizinische Hochschule Hannover, Hannover, Germany
Corresponding author: Prof. Dr. med. Justus G. Garweg, Swiss Eye Institute, Bremgartenstrasse 119, CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland.
No author has a financial or proprietary interest in any material or method mentioned.
Presented at the joint meeting of the Societas Ophthalmologica Europeae and the Deutsche Ophthalmologische Gesellschaft 2005, Berlin, Germany, September 2005.
ABSTRACT