Old age not a risk factor for complications during cataract surgery, study finds

A study in elderly patients found that old age alone was not a significant risk factor for intraoperative complications during cataract surgery.

Scott J. Robbie, MBBS, and colleagues at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London prospectively tracked intraoperative complications in 1,441 consecutive patients undergoing cataract surgery. The researchers compared rates of complication between patients older and younger than 88 years and between patients older and younger than 96 years.

The authors found no association between age and the risk of intraoperative complications. Patients older than 88 years or 96 years did not have an increased risk of surgical complication compared to younger patients, the authors said.

The findings have "implications not just for tailoring the risk of complications occurring to individual patients but also for meaningful comparisons between national complication rates and those of individual surgeons, and better selection of cases suitable for instruction," the authors said.

The study is published in the December issue of the British Journal of Ophthalmology.