National cataract surgery survey 1997-8. A report of the results of the clinical outcomes

Aims-A national survey of over 100 hospitals in the UK was carried out to c ollect routine clinical information on the outcomes of cataract surgery The clinical outcomes of interest were: visual acuity at time of discharge fro m postoperative hospital follow up, visual acuity at time of final refracti on; complications related to surgery occurring during the operation, within 48 hours of surgery, and within 3 months of surgery. In addition, informat ion on age and comorbidity was obtained. This article reports on the findin gs of the experience of approximately 18 000 patients who had cataract surg ery in the hospital eye service of the NHS. Results-Of those with no ocular comorbidity, 85% achieved a visual acuity o f 6/12 or better on discharge from postoperative hospital follow up, while 65% of patients with a serious co-existing eye disease achieved this level of acuity at this time. At final refraction, 92% of patients without ocular comorbidity and 77% of patients with ocular comorbidity achieved 6/12 or b etter visual acuity. The following main risk indicators were associated wit h visual outcomes and complications related to surgery: age, other eye dise ases, diabetes and stroke, type of surgical procedure, and grade of surgeon . Conclusions-The acceptability of these findings could fruitfully be the sub ject of discussion within the ophthalmic community and hopefully issues ari sing out of the study can lead to research, especially in-depth studies of the outcomes of cataract surgery in those patients with coexisting serious eye conditions.