Pediatric Cataract Surgery: Rate of Secondary Visual Axis Opacification Depending on Intraocular Lens Type

Purpose: To assess the time course of secondary visual axis opacification (VAO) leading to additional surgery after primary intraocular lens (IOL) implantation in children and to describe further surgical outcomes. Comparison of lens types. Design: Single-center, retrospective analysis of children aged 1 to 14 years who underwent cataract surgery with primary IOL implantation. The surgical technique was either in-bag IOL placement with primary posterior capsulotomy and anterior vitrectomy or bag-in-lens IOL placement. We excluded eyes with visually significant ocular comorbidities. Participants: Total of 135 eyes of 95 children. Of these, 64 had received an acrylic 3-piece IOL, 51 had an acrylic single-piece IOL, and 20 had an acrylic single-piece bag-in-lens IOL. The median ages at surgery were 53 months (interquartile range [IQR], 35-75), 52 months (27-65), and 60 months (40-84) in the 3-piece, 1-piece, and bag-in-lens groups, respectively. Methods: Analysis of medical records. We used the KaplaneMeier method and a Cox proportional hazards model with predefined adjustments for age at surgery, year of surgery, and the German Index of Socioeconomic Deprivation (score by postal code) to analyze VAO-free survival by lens type. Patients were invited to attend a clinical visit to achieve longer follow-ups. Main Outcome Measures: The rate of survival without VAO that required clearing of the visual axis after cataract surgery with primary IOL implantation. Any other surgical complications. Results: The overall median follow-up was 19 months (IQR, 3-58). There were 13 cases of VAO, occurring at a median of 10 months (IQR, 10-12) after surgery. Of these, 1 eye had a 3-piece in-bag IOL, 10 eyes had 1-piece in-bag IOLs, and 2 eyes had bag-in-lens IOLs. The adjusted hazard ratio was 32.8 (95% confidence interval [CI], 3.3-327, P = 0.003) for 1-piece acrylic IOLs and 19.6 (CI, 1.22-316, P = 0.036) for bag-in-lens IOLs, compared with 3-piece acrylic in-bag IOLs. Two eyes with bag-in-lens surgery (10%) had an iris capture. There was 1 case of endophthalmitis. We found no cases of postoperative retinal detachment or new glaucoma. Conclusions: Children with secondary VAO who required a procedure to clear the visual axis generally presented within 15 months. Opacification rates were lowest when a 3-piece acrylic IOL was used. (c) 2022 by the American Academy of Ophthalmology

Automated summary

This study assessed the time course of secondary visual axis opacification (VAO) after primary intraocular lens (IOL) implantation in children and found that the opacification rate was lowest when using a 3-piece acrylic IOL.