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Diabetes may negatively affect post-phaco best corrected near visual acuity, study suggests
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Patients with diabetes may achieve significantly worse best corrected near visual acuity outcomes after phacoemulsification cataract surgery, even if diabetic retinopathy is not detected preoperatively, a study by researchers in Malaysia suggests.
"The postoperative visual acuity was correlated with diabetic control," the study authors noted.
Ming Yueh Lee, MD, and colleagues at Hospital Pulau Pinang and Hospital Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur evaluated visual outcomes associated with diabetes after performing phacoemulsification in 102 eyes. Of these, 51 patients (51 eyes) had diabetes without evidence of diabetic retinopathy. The other 51 patients (51 eyes) did not have diabetes, according to the study.
Investigators found that diabetes was significantly associated with worse best corrected near visual acuity postoperatively (P = .027). In addition, diabetic patients had a slower rate of improvement in best corrected near and distance visual acuities, according to the study.
Also, "the anterior chamber reaction was generally more severe in the patients with diabetes," the authors noted.
Five of the 51 eyes of diabetic patients (9.8%) developed mild nonproliferative diabetic retinopathy, they added.
The study is published in the December issue of Asian Journal of Ophthalmology.