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VA improves in school age children post-congenital cataract removal, study finds
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GOTHENBURG, Sweden — Visual acuity improved to a considerable extent after school age in children with delayed visual development caused by congenital cataracts, a long-term study showed. The study authors noted that surgery before 7 weeks of age resulted in a more rapid development of visual acuity initially.
Gunilla Magnusson, MD, and colleagues with Gothenburg University here studied 38 patients who were diagnosed with congenital cataract. The monocular visual acuity (VA) of the better eye was analyzed at 4, 7,10 and 12 years of age, in 20 total and 18 partial cataracts. Mean follow-up was 9.3 years after surgery.
By the time the patients were 12, about 50% had a VA of 0.4 or above. VA improved to a considerable extent after school age, especially in children who were operated on between the ages of 7 weeks and 1 year. The mean VA in the group of total congenital cataracts operated on before 7 weeks of age achieved higher values of VA at 4 years of age compared with children with total cataracts operated on between 7 weeks and 1 year of age. The difference in VA was not statistically significant, however.
The study is published in the December issue of British Journal of Ophthalmology.