Bubble Tea Congenital Cataract: A New Morphology In Pediatric Cataracts

To describe the surgical case of a child that had bilateral bubble tea congenital cataracts.

This patient was treated at the Altino Ventura Foundation, a nonprofit organization in Recife, Brazil.

A 3-year-old boy presented with bilateral white cataracts. His mother referred first noticing the leukocoria a year before. He had light perception vision. The surgeries of both eyes consisted of anterior capsulorhexis, phacoaspiration, posterior capsulotomy, anterior vitrectomy and in-the-bag intraocular lens implantation. During phacoaspiration it was interesting to notice that amongst the white content of the crystalline lens, there were several small opaque spheres resembling the bubbles of a bubble tea. Both surgeries and postoperative period were uneventful. One month after the procedure, he reached 20/380 vision in each eye. Amblyopia treatment with glasses and visual stimulation were started, and he is going to return for follow up in 3 months.

This was the first case in which we saw this morphologic appearance of various small opaque spheres amongst the white crystalline lens content resembling bubbles of a bubble tea. Interestingly, the patient had the same cataract morphology in both eyes.