Functional visual outcomes of cataract surgery in patients with 20/20 or better preoperative visual acuity

Abstract

The functional vision of patients with 20/20 or better preoperative CDVA improved significantly after cataract surgery. This finding shows that arbitrary CDVA thresholds of worse than 20/20 cannot always be used to determine who will benefit from cataract surgery.

Objective functional visual outcomes of cataract surgery in patients with good preoperative visual acuity

“…Our patients reported high satisfaction scores after cataract surgery. Similar results were reported by Amesbury et al, 33 who found that the subjective visual function was significantly improved by cataract surgery in patients with a preoperative BCVA better than 20/20. However, they only reported subjective visual outcomes in patients with BCVA ≥ 20/20.…”

Straylight measurements as an indication for cataract surgery

“…2 At present, visual impairment is usually qualified as loss of visual acuity only and the indication for cataract extraction is mainly based on visual acuity. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7] Nevertheless, it may be difficult to accurately predict the outcomes of cataract extraction in individual patients because visual acuity is a relative value and does not represent all aspects of quality of vision. 3,[5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14] Although other factors can influence the postoperative visual results, additional vision tests, such as contrast sensitivity and glare sensitivity, are infrequently used in the preoperative decision-making process.…”

“…[1][2][3][4][5][6][7] Nevertheless, it may be difficult to accurately predict the outcomes of cataract extraction in individual patients because visual acuity is a relative value and does not represent all aspects of quality of vision. 3,[5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14] Although other factors can influence the postoperative visual results, additional vision tests, such as contrast sensitivity and glare sensitivity, are infrequently used in the preoperative decision-making process. 2,3 However, previous studies [5][6][7][8][12][13][14] have shown that additional vision tests provide important preoperative information that correlate with patients' complaints and are valuable in assessing the quality of vision.…”

“…3,[5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14] Although other factors can influence the postoperative visual results, additional vision tests, such as contrast sensitivity and glare sensitivity, are infrequently used in the preoperative decision-making process. 2,3 However, previous studies [5][6][7][8][12][13][14] have shown that additional vision tests provide important preoperative information that correlate with patients' complaints and are valuable in assessing the quality of vision. Recent cataract surgery guidelines advise that in addition to visual acuity, one should consider other measures of visual functioning (eg, glare or halos) and the degree of functional disability when making recommendations for surgery and evaluating the outcomes of surgery.…”

“…15 Many cataract patients with excellent visual acuity report glare and other visual problems because cataract leads to an increased amount of straylight, which can cause disability glare. [6][7][8][9][10][11]13,14,16,17 Light scattered by the eye's imperfect optical media causes a veil of straylight over the retina, which is relative to forward light scatter. 10,11,14,16 It diminishes the contrast of the retinal image and causes symptoms of disability glare and halos.…”