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April 23, 2023
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Posterior capsular opacification may be more common after prior scleral buckling

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Key takeaways:

  • Incidence of posterior capsular opacification may be higher in eyes after cataract surgery that underwent prior scleral buckling.
  • There was a low rate of recurrent retinal detachment.

NEW ORLEANS — There may be a higher incidence of posterior capsular opacification after cataract surgery in eyes that previously underwent scleral buckling, according to a poster here.

“Ultimately, in my study, we were looking at eyes that had prior retinal detachment that was corrected via scleral buckling and then had cataract surgery subsequently,” Nitya Devireddy, BS, MPH, told Healio/OSN at the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology meeting. “We were looking at some of the safety outcomes of this, and we found that the most common complication following cataract surgery was posterior capsular opacification, and patients required YAG to correct this.”

Cataract surgery being performed
There may be a higher incidence of posterior capsular opacification after cataract surgery in eyes that previously underwent scleral buckling, according to a poster here.
Image: Adobe Stock

The single-center retrospective consecutive case series included 60 eyes with a history of scleral buckling for retinal detachment repair that had subsequent cataract extraction and IOL implantation at Penn State Eye Center.

Sixty-seven percent of eyes experienced postoperative complications within 1 year of cataract surgery. The most frequent complication was posterior capsular opacification that required YAG capsulotomy in 56.7% of eyes, Devireddy said.

Nitya Devireddy, MPH
Nitya Devireddy

Other complications included cloudy vision in 8.33% of eyes and cystoid macular edema in 5%.

One eye had recurrent retinal detachment, with a mean time to onset of 0.315 months after cataract surgery. “However, cataract surgery in eyes with history of scleral buckling may be a safe procedure given the low rate of recurrent retinal detachment (1.67%),” the authors wrote.

Future research should investigate patients over a longer period, Devireddy told Healio/OSN.

“I think with a 2-year or maybe a 5- or 10-year period, you can see further along how these complications develop,” she said.