Use of spectacles after routine cataract surgery: a study from the Swedish National Cataract Registry

Session Details

Session Title: Cataract Surgery Outcomes and Practice Styles

Session Date/Time: Wednesday 09/09/2015 | 08:00-09:30

Paper Time: 08:30

Venue: Room 17

First Author: : D.Beckung-Farhoudi SWEDEN

Co Author(s): :    A. Behndig   P. Montan   M. Lundström   C. Zetterström   M. Kugelberg        

Abstract Details

Purpose:

To explore the use of spectacles after routine cataract surgery focusing on factors predicting spectacle-dependence for near and distance, including postoperative refraction and the relevance of emmetropia for spectacle-independence.

Setting:

The Swedish National Cataract Registry (NCR) collects data from 97% of all cataract surgeries in Sweden. We selected 1527 patients from a cohort of bilaterally operated patients in the month of March 2013, for which more extensive data (including outcome data) was available.

Methods:

The study is a retrospective analysis of data from the NCR, combined with an intervention; an additional questionnaire with 5 simple questions about spectacle use before and after surgery, for both for near and distance: Patients were asked how and when they used spectales, if they received information about a need for spectacles at the postoperative follow-up visit, if they had purchased new distance-spectacles after surgery and if not, the primary reason for that. The responses were coded and linked to data from the registry on multiple variables including postoperative refraction.

Results:

We received 1329 questionnaires in return (response rate 87.1%).Overall postoperative spectacle-dependence was 44,9% for distance and 90,.5% for near . Our main finding was that among patients who received information on the need for distance-spectacles, a majority of 299 (77,1%) did later obtain new distance. Conversely, patients that were not informed about a need for distance spectacles, a majority of 545 (78,.9%) did not obtain them. Studying refraction in groups revealed that while almost 50% of patients with both spherical and cylindrical error > 1D did not obtain new distance-spectacles after surgery, about 25% of patients with bilateral emmetropia (spherical error <0,.5D, cylinder < 1D) still obtained new distance-spectacles after surgery. Differences between gender and age groups were small.

Conclusions:

The use and obtaining of new spectacles after surgery was most strongly correlated with information given to the patient about the need of distance-correction by the practitioner. The large difference between the informed vs. non-informed groups were only vaguely reflected in the distribution of postoperative refractive error. Neither could patterns of preoperative spectacle use fully explain the magnitude of the difference. The relationship between postoperative refraction and the need of correction appears incompletely understood and subjective in part. A future study combining spectacle use with available NCR-data on self-assessed visual function would bring insight to the implications of our results.

Financial Interest:

NONE