Comparisons Of Outcomes And Complications Of Immediate Sequential Bilateral Cataract Surgery And Unilateral Cataract Surgery At A Tertiary Hospital In South Korea

The purpose of this study was to compare the outcomes and complications of immediate sequential bilateral cataract surgery(ISBCS) and unilateral cataract surgery at a tertiary hospital in South Korea.

The authors reviewed 441 cataract surgery cases between March 1st 2021 and October 31th 2021 at Korea University Guro Hospital by one surgeon (SJS).

Medical records including patients’ demography, preoperative visual acuity, corneal astigmatism, axial length, preoperative spherical equivalent, preoperative target (using Barrett Universal 2 formula), post operative visual acuity, postoperative refractive error and postoperative complications were evaluated. Eyes with corneal opacity, retinal disorder, glaucoma, myopic correction of more than -1.5 diopter and patients whose axial length could not be measured by optical biometry were excluded. Unilateral cataract surgery group included 77 patients and ISBCS group included 261 patients.

The average age of ISBCS group (69.2±9.40) was older than the average age of unilateral cataract surgery group.( 66.65±11.26)(p=0.05) The preoperative best corrective visual acuity(BCVA) was lower in unilateral cataract surgery group (0.40±0.45 logMAR) compared to that of ISBCS group.(0.28±0.16 logMAR))(p=0.008), whereas the postoperative BCVA was not significantly different in the two groups (0.06±0.10 logMAR vs 0.07±0.16 logMAR)(p=0.63). There was no significant difference in the absolute refractive error after cataract surgery in the two groups (0.46±0.37 D vs 0.42±0.38 D)(p=0.63). However, there were two patients complaining of diplopia due to postoperative strabismus only in the ISBCS group.

In South Korea, ISBCS tends to increase gradually at a tertiary hospital and the outcomes and complications were similar with that of unilateral cataract surgery.