Visual outcomes after surgery for unilateral cataract in children more than two years old: posterior chamber intraocular lens implantation versus contact lens correction of aphakia.

PURPOSE: We sought to determine whether posterior chamber intraocular lens implantation yields better visual acuity and binocular vision than does conventional contact lens correction of aphakia in similar groups of pediatric cataract patients.

METHODS

We reviewed the medical records of children aged 2 to 16 years who had unilateral cataract surgery by a single pediatric ophthalmologist between 1986 and 1996. Before 1992 all patients underwent standard lensectomy with vitrectomy. Beginning in 1992 posterior chamber intraocular lens (IOL) implantation was offered as a choice to families and was performed on most patients.

RESULTS

Monocular vision outcomes were not significantly different in 20 IOL and 31 lensectomy-vitrectomy patients, with 85% of the IOL group and 77% of the lensectomy-vitrectomy group showing better than 20/100 final acuity. Binocularity, however, was much better in the IOL group, with 90% demonstrating at least 400 seconds of arc stereopsis, as opposed to 39% in the lensectomy-vitrectomy group (p = 0.003). Subgroups of patients with traumatic or nontraumatic cataract origin, age at surgery less than 7 years, and preoperative visual acuity less than 20/100 compared very similarly.

CONCLUSION

Posterior chamber IOL implantation appears to provide significantly better binocular function than conventional management of unilateral cataract in childhood but does not substantially improve visual acuity results.