VISUAL PROGNOSIS FOLLOWING ACCIDENTAL VITREOUS LOSS DURING CATARACT-SURGERY

Over the past 7 years there has been a change in the management of acc idental vitreous loss during cataract surgery. There has been a reduct ion in immediate postoperative complications such as hyphaema. No imme diate post-operative complications were observed during the last 18 mo nths of the study. Whereas previously many of these patients remained aphakic, there was a change initially to anterior chamber intraocular lenses (IOLs) and now the vast majority receive capsule-supported sulc us-fixated posterior chamber IOLs. All patients had improved vision po st-operatively by a mean of 4 Snellen lines, although they did not ach ieve the acuities of age- and sex-matched controls (p=0.015).