Visual prognosis favorable with primary IOL implantation in pediatric traumatic cataract

April 18 - Washington, DC - A good visual outcome is often achieved following primary IOL placement in pediatric eyes undergoing removal of traumatic cataract, said Richard Golub, MD.

He reported outcomes from a retrospective study of 48 eyes of patients treated at the Medical University of South Carolina. The children ranged in age from 28 to 167 months at the time of surgery.

Mode of trauma was blunt in 58% of eyes and penetrating in 42%. In 33 eyes, the IOL was placed in the capsular bag, 12 had ciliary sulcus placement, and 3 IOLs were optic captured.

After a mean follow-up of 16.3 months, 59% of eyes achieved BCVA of 20/40 or better. Median postop BCVA was similar in the blunt trauma and penetrating trauma groups (20/34 versus 20/30, respectively).

"The comparable visual outcome after penetrating and nonpenetrating injury was somewhat surprising. However, considering that our study included a relatively small number of eyes, no definitive conclusions can be reached about the relative outcomes after those different types of injuries," Dr. Golub said.