Pediatric cataracts.

Posterior chamber intraocular lenses are a well-accepted treatment of aphakia in children 2 years of age and older, with many now considering them as the treatment of choice. Infants, however, are usually treated with contact lens, rather than intraocular lens implantation, as the infant eye undergoes significant axial elongation. The use of intraocular lenses in children with cataracts associated with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis remains controversial, but a recent article [9] describes good results in these patients, who historically have a poor prognosis. The management of amblyopia associated with unilateral congenital cataracts is evolving. In the 1970s and 1980s, full-time occlusion of the sound eye was advocated for infants with unilateral congenital cataracts. It was also taught that binocular fusion was impossible to obtain, and children with unilateral cataracts inevitably develop strabismus. Recent studies have shown that part-time occlusion may in fact yield better results, allowing the development of binocular vision and stereopsis and reducing the incidence of strabismus.