Clinical outcomes of surgical techniques in congenital cataracts

To investigate the general clinical features of congenital cataracts and to determine their relationship to visual prognosis and surgical complications according to age at operation and surgical procedure adopted. We retrospectively evaluated 92 eyes in 61 patients with congenital cataracts who underwent cataract surgery between January 1996 and December 2006. The demographic data, surgical technique, post-operative complications, and final visual prognosis were evaluated. The average age at surgery was 3.17 years (range 1 month to 11 years), and the mean follow-up was 40.02 months (range 6 to 46 months). Of the 56 eyes that could be checked for visual acuity after cataract extraction, 29 (51.7%) had a BCVA of > or = 0.5 at last visit. Unilateral congenital cataracts (p=0.025) and congenital cataracts with strabismus (p=0.019) showed significantly poorer visual outcomes. Patients with nystagmus also experienced a poor visual outcome; 6 patients (67%) had a BCVA of