Effects of Cataract Surgery on Diabetic Retinopathy

Lee, Kyung Taek; Kim, Min Ho; Chang, Kwang Yul; Hu, Warne

Abstract

The course of diabetic retinopathy following cataract extraction was studied prospectively in 45 eyes of 33 diabetics for 4-50 weeks(average duration: 20 weeks). The results were as follows: 1. Twenty two(81.4%) of the 29 eyes with preoperative existence of diabetic retinopathy showed a statistically higher incidence of postoperative progression of diabetic retinopathy than eight(50%) of the 16 eyes with no pre-existing diabetic retinopathy(p<0.05). 2. Ten(83.3%) of the 12 eyes with posterior chamber lens in the sulcus showed a statistically higher incidence of postoperative progression of diabetic retinopathy than sixteen(55.2%) of the 23 eyes with posterior chamber lens in the bag(p<0.05). 3. The final corrected visual acuity of better than 20/40 was achieved in eleven(68.7%) of the 16 eyes with no pre-existing diabetic retinopathy and in ten(58.8%) of the 17 eyes with nonproliferative diabetic retinopathy. It revealed no significant difference between them(p>0.05). 4. Nephropathy is the most common preoperative systemic disease and eighteen of the 19 eyes showed the postoperative progression of diabetic retinopathy. There was no statistically significant difference regarding fasting blood sugar, pp2hr, HbA1c, total cholesterol, triglyceride, or the presence of hypertension, atherosclerosis, cardiac disease, and anemia. The only significant difference was related to the presence of nephropathy(p<0.05).