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. 2021 Apr;69(4):932-936.
doi: 10.4103/ijo.IJO_1558_20.

Profile of congenital cataract in the first year of life from a tertiary care center in South India - A modern series

Vivek Mahendrapratap Singh  1 , Akshay Badakere  1 , Preeti Patil-Chhablani  2 , Ramesh Kekunnaya  1
Affiliations

Profile of congenital cataract in the first year of life from a tertiary care center in South India - A modern series

Vivek Mahendrapratap Singh et al. Indian J Ophthalmol. 2021 Apr.

Abstract

Purpose: To report the etiology, clinical presentation, and morphology of congenital cataract in a tertiary care center.

Methods: It is a prospective cohort study conducted at L V Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad. All children with congenital cataract ≤ 12 months of age that required surgical intervention between August 2015 and July 2016 were included in the study. 109 such patients were subjected to meticulous history taking, pedigree charting, ocular, and systemic examination, B-scan, TORCH testing, clinical photographs, pediatrician consult and blood tests, which included serum calcium, serum phosphorous and urine for reducing sugars.

Results: The mean age of presentation was 4.1 months (±2.6 months) and both the genders were equally affected (P = 0.49). Eighty-five patients (77.9%) presented with bilateral cataracts while 24 patients had a unilateral presentation (22.1%). The common morphological presentation was either a total or a nuclear cataract, both variants noticed in 47 patients (43.1%). TORCH infections were responsible for a maximum (37 patients, 33.4%) number of cases followed by familial (20 patients, 18%) and developmental anomalies (11 patients, 10.1%) while the total number of idiopathic cases were 24% (27 patients). Eighteen patients (16.5%) had congenital heart defects and the majority (16 patients, 88.9%) of these had positive TORCH titres.

Conclusion: Familial cataract and those possibly due to TORCH are still the predominant cause of congenital cataract in this series-highlighting the role of vaccination and preventive measures.

Keywords: Etiology; TORCH; infantile cataract; pediatric cataract surgery; rubella cataract.

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Conflict of interest statement

None

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Various morphological variants of congenital cataract reported in the study. (a, d and g) total cataract, (b) child with Down syndrome and total cataract, (c) typical dirty yellow Rubella cataract, (e) asymmetrical cataract with exotropia, (f) Lamellar cataract, (l) Sutural cataract (h) Posterior lenticonus (Bilateral)
Figure 2
Figure 2
Bar diagram showing associated ocular features in patients with congenital cataract
Figure 3
Figure 3
Bar diagram showing associated systemic features in patients with congenital cataract
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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