Cataract surgery improves quality of life in AMD patients with cataract

Performing cataract surgery in patients with early age-related macular degeneration and visually significant cataract can produce significant improvements in both vision and quality of life, a study by Australian researchers shows.

Ecosse L. Lamoureux, PhD, and colleagues at the Centre for Eye Research Australia, University of Melbourne, used the impact of vision impairment (IVI) questionnaire to investigate how cataract surgery affected the quality of life of patients with early AMD. The study included 56 patients who averaged 78.5 years of age and had an average preoperative visual acuity of 6/15, according to the study.

In addition to early AMD, all patients had visually significant cataract and were being considered for cataract surgery in one eye, the study authors noted.

Investigators randomly assigned 29 patients to undergo early surgery and 27 patients to undergo standard surgery, which has a 6-month waiting time, the authors reported.

At follow-up, the researchers found significant interaction effects for the overall IVI score as well as for the subscales evaluating emotional well-being, mobility and independence, and reading and accessing information, according to the study.

"The standard surgery group systematically recorded worse scores at 6 months on all [quality of life] measures, whereas the early surgery group recorded significant gains on all of them," the authors said.

Additionally, "visual acuity in the study eye significantly improved in the early surgery group only," they noted.

The study is published in the August issue of Optometry and Vision Science.