In a report published in the American Journal of Ophthalmology, a team of US researchers have shown that patients with ocular hypertension may benefit from cataract surgery.
“Studies suggest that cataract surgery lowers IOP, and that this reduction is generally proportional to presurgical IOP. As well, several papers report a decrease in ocular hypotensive medications with cataract surgery,” said lead author Dr Steven Mansberger from the Legacy Devers Eye Institute. The team analysed the data of 623 participants in the Ocular Hypertension Treatment Study, all of whom were being treated with ocular hypotensive medications. Of these patients, 92 underwent cataract surgery. At their first postoperative assessment 23% of eyes were free of medication and 41% of eyes had reduced medication. Although the cataract surgery group experienced a decrease in intraocular pressure (IOP), the difference in IOP between this group and the control group decreased, becoming non-significant after 12 months.
Researchers also noted that glaucoma conversion or incidence of primary open angle glaucoma decreased after cataract surgery when considering optic disc as an endpoint, but not for visual field, nor when combining either visual field or optic disc endpoints. “Together, these data suggest modest benefits of cataract surgery (beyond the visual improvement resulting from cataract surgery) in reducing IOP and medication burden when a study-specified target IOP was used,” the team concluded.
