Visual prognosis following accidental vitreous loss during cataract surgery.

Over the past 7 years there has been a change in the management of accidental vitreous loss during cataract surgery. There has been a reduction in immediate postoperative complications such as hyphaema. No immediate post-operative complications were observed during the last 18 months of the study. Whereas previously many of these patients remained aphakic, there was a change initially to anterior chamber intraocular lenses (IOLs) and now the vast majority receive capsule-supported sulcus-fixated posterior chamber IOLs. All patients had improved vision post-operatively by a mean of 4 Snellen lines, although they did not achieve the acuities of age- and sex-matched controls (p = 0.015).