The prevalence of visual axis opacification in the Swedish Pediatric Cataract Register.

PURPOSE: To report on the occurrence of postoperative visual axis opacification (VAO) in children younger than 5 years of age operated for cataract in Sweden, and to analyse correlations with age at surgery and surgical method.

METHODS

Data were derived from the Swedish Pediatric Cataract Register (PECARE). All children operated on between 1 January 2007 and 31 December 2020 were included. Follow-ups at 1, 2 and 5 years of age were analysed.

RESULTS

Cataract surgery were performed on 770 eyes belonging to 549 children (n = 282 boys, 51.4%); 327/770 (42.5%) of the children underwent surgery before 3 months of age and 216/770 (28%) before 6 weeks of age. Data on 881 follow-up visits were registered. At the follow up-visits at 1, 2 and 5 years of age, VAO was present in 154/349 (44.1%), 41/323 (12.7%) and 25/208 (12%). The majority of the children with VAO underwent cataract surgery before age 6 months, with a predominance before age 2 months. Primary IOL was implanted in 601/770 (78%) of eyes; 40.8% had an acrylic one-piece lens, 31.8% had a bag-in-the-lens IOL, 21.9% were aphakic and 5.2% had an acrylic three-piece lens. Implantation of a bag-in-the-lens IOL was related to a significantly lower occurrence of VAO compared to other types of IOL, including aphakia (p < 0.0002).

CONCLUSION

Our results are in accordance with the literature. Primary bag-in-the-lens IOL implantation before 2 years of age seems adequate and safe, with a low occurrence of VAO, and can thus be continued as routine in Sweden.