Zeitschrift für klinische und experimentelle Ophthalmologie
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Abstrakt

Ocular Axial Length Growth of Cataractous and Fellow Eyes in Paediatric Patients after Unilateral Cataract Surgery

Ashraf Wasfy Harb, Arvind Chandna

Background: To assess the preoperative and postoperative axial length growth of the cataractous and unaffected eyes in children who had unilateral cataract surgery.

Materials and methods: This was a retrospective study involving 38 eyes from 19 children who had unilateral cataract extraction due to unilateral congenital or developmental cataract. Preoperatively, at the time of surgery or a few days before surgery, and postoperatively, at the final follow-up appointment, the axial lengths of the cataractous and unaffected eyes were measured. Three of the 19 patients had no postoperative axial length measurements, thus they were excluded from the postoperative portion of the study. The measurements of axial length in the cataractous and unaffected eyes were compared.

Results: The axial length of the cataractous eyes was significantly (P˂0.001) shorter than that of the non-affected eyes prior to surgery. The operated eyes had significantly higher postoperative axial length growth (p=0.007) than the fellow eyes, however there was no statistically significant difference (p=0.5) in postoperative axial length measured at the last follow up examination between the operated and fellow eyes.

Conclusion: At the time of surgery, we discovered that the cataractous eyes were significantly shorter than the unaffected eyes. The axial length growth of the operated eyes was significantly greater than that of the fellow eyes after surgery, and there was no statistically significant difference between the axial lengths of the operated eyes and fellow eyes at the last follow-up visit.