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. 2015 Apr;29(4):552-60.
doi: 10.1038/eye.2015.3. Epub 2015 Feb 13.

The Royal College of Ophthalmologists' National Ophthalmology Database study of cataract surgery: report 1, visual outcomes and complications

A C Day  1 , P H J Donachie  2 , J M Sparrow  3 , R L Johnston  2 ; Royal College of Ophthalmologists’ National Ophthalmology Database
Affiliations

The Royal College of Ophthalmologists' National Ophthalmology Database study of cataract surgery: report 1, visual outcomes and complications

A C Day et al. Eye (Lond). 2015 Apr.

Abstract

Aims: To describe the outcomes of cataract surgery in the United Kingdom.

Methods: Anonymised data on 180 114 eyes from 127 685 patients undergoing cataract surgery between August 2006 and November 2010 were collected prospectively from 28 sites. Outcome measures included intraoperative and postoperative complication rates, and preoperative and postoperative visual acuities.

Results: Median age at first eye surgery was 77.1 years, 36.9% cases had ocular co-pathology and 41.0% patients underwent cataract surgery on both eyes. Preoperative visual acuity was 0.30 logMAR or better in 32.0% first eyes and 47.7% second eyes. Postoperative best-measured visual acuity was 0.00 and 0.30 logMAR or better in 50.8 and 94.6% eyes without ocular co-pathology, and 32.5 and 79.9% in eyes with co-pathology. For eyes without co-pathology, postoperative uncorrected distance visual acuity was 0.00 and 0.30 logMAR or better in 27.3 and 80.9% eyes. Posterior capsule rupture or vitreous loss or both occurred in 1.95% cases, and was associated with a 42 times higher risk of retinal detachment surgery within 3 months and an eight times higher risk of endophthalmitis.

Conclusion: These results provide updated data for the benchmarking of cataract surgery. Visual outcomes, and the rate of posterior capsule rupture or vitreous loss or both appear stable over the past decade.

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Conflict of interest statement

PHJD's employer received unrestricted funding from The Special Trustees of Moorfield's Eye Hospital to analyse these data. RLJ is the Medical Director of Medisoft Limited, which developed the electronic medical record from which the data were extracted for the first iteration of the National Ophthalmology Database.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
(a) Posterior capsular rupture and/or vitreous loss (PCR) rates by grade of surgeon and NHS year. The dashed lines represent 95% confidence intervals and the solid line joins the yearly PCR rates for all surgeons. The NHS year runs from 1 April to 31 March. The 2010 NHS year is not complete; data is displayed up to 30 November 2010. (b) Bubble plot of visual acuities for all eyes. The size of each circle is proportional to the total number of observations and the labels are the number of eyes. Of the 95 561 eyes 77 555 (81.2%) were in a higher VA category (above the dotted line), 15 145 (15.8%) remained in the same category (on the dotted line) and 2861 (3.0%) were in a lower VA category 4 months after cataract surgery compared with their presenting VA measurement.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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