How does Diabetic Retinopathy Affect Cataract Surgery?

Editor's note: Ophthalmology time is pleased to acknowledge that John R. Chancellor, MD, MS, a resident of the Jones Eye Institute of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock, AR, is a second-place winner of the second Fellowship Program honored in Ophthalmology of the Times. Dr. Chancellor's summary is presented here. The Honored Ophthalmic Research Fellowship Program is dedicated to educating Retinal Fellows and Residents by providing fellows / residents with a unique opportunity to share outstanding research and challenging cases with their peers and mentors. The program is supported by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and Carl Zeiss Meditec Inc., which provide unrestricted grants. Look for other case study recipients in future issues of Ophthalmology time.

Goal

At some point, every ophthalmologist will bring a diabetic patient to the office who will have a visually important cataract. Diabetic retinopathy is the leading cause of vision loss in diabetic patients and a leading cause of blindness in working-age adults.

As a result, the purpose of the study was to evaluate the influence of diabetic retinopathy on cataract surgery. The main objectives included the study of preoperative risk factors, intraoperative complications and postoperative outcomes.

The methods

The study examined a retrospective clinical database study involving 217,107 operated cataract eyes in eight hospitals of the UK National Health Service between 2000-2015. Of the eyes included in the database study, 138,100 were not diabetic; 41,059 were diabetic; and for the remaining 37,948 diabetic status was not recorded.

Our methods of badessing risk factors compared the prevalence of preoperative risk factors and co-pathology in diabetic and non-diabetic patients. In the evaluation of complications, we compared the incidence of intraoperative complications in diabetic and non-diabetic patients during cataract surgery.

Finally, we compared postoperative outcomes between diabetic and non-diabetic patients after cataract surgery. Our methodology included strict inclusion criteria, without copathology except amblyopia; no simultaneous surgical procedures except intraocular injection; and a clear ETDRS clbadification of retinopathy was required.

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Disclosures:

John R. Chancellor, MD, MS
E: [email protected]
Dr. Chancellor has no financial interest or relationship to disclose. None of the participants in his project has any financial interest or relationship to disclose.