Long-Term Visual Outcome In Surgical Management Of Cataract Coexistent With Corneal Opacity In One-Eyed Patients

Purpose: To determine the visual outcome and safety of cataract surgery alone and compare with the long-term visual outcome of triple procedure in one-eyed patients.Design: Retrospective study.Methods: This study reviewed 44 one-eyed patients with cataract coexistent with corneal opacity. The patients who underwent cataract surgery alone (group A, n = 25) were compared with patients managed by triple procedure (group B, n = 19). Outcome measures were the improvement of best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) and period of maintained ambulatory vision. Institutional ethics committee approval was obtained.Results: The most common etiology of corneal opacity was fungal and the commonest cause of permanent visual loss in other eye was phthisis bulbi. Mean age was 61.2 +/- 8.1 years and 62.5 +/- 6.9 years in groups A and B, respectively. At each follow-up, the mean postoperative BCVA was found significantly better than the preoperative vision in both groups and at the end of 3 years, mean postoperative vision of group A was better than that of group B (P= 0.012). Group A had longer (33.36 +/- 11.97 months) mean period of maintained ambulatory vision than that of group B (26.5 +/- 13.5 months) (P = 0.245) and showed less risk of losing ambulatory vision. Limited visual outcome was due to continuing presence of corneal opacity in group A, and graft infection and graft rejection in group B.Conclusions: Cataract surgery with intraocular lens (IOL) implantation alone can be considered as an alternative or temporary option to provide stable ambulatory vision in one-eyed patients.