Cataract extraction has little effect on visual field in patients with glaucoma

Cataract surgery improved best corrected visual acuity in patients with glaucoma, but no noticeable change in their visual fields, according to a study.

Monica M. Carrillo, MD, and colleagues at Dalhousie University in Canada studied the effect of cataract surgery on the visual fields of 34 eyes of 26 patients with open-angle glaucoma.

The patients underwent standard automated perimetry every 6 months. The researchers compared the mean results of the two exams immediately before and the two exams immediately after phacoemulsification with IOL implantation, which they termed the effect analysis. They also compared the mean results of the first two and last two of four consecutive exams obtained more than 1 year after surgery, which they termed the control analysis.

While mean BCVA in the eyes improved significantly by about two Snellen lines after surgery, the average change in mean deviation in both the control and effect analyses was not statistically significant. The researchers found a “strong correlation” between change in foveal sensitivity and change in mean deviation in the effect analysis but not in the control analysis. There was no relationship between change in visual acuity or initial mean deviation and change in mean deviation in either analysis.

The study is published in the July issue of Archives of Ophthalmology.