Simultaneous bilateral cataract extraction

To evaluate the visual outcome and safety of simultaneous bilateral cataract extraction.

Stobhill Hospital NHS Trust, Glasgow, United Kingdom.

This retrospective case review comprised 259 consecutive patients (518 eyes) who had simultaneous bilateral cataract surgery. Surgeries included bilateral extracapsular procedures, uniocular extracapsular procedures performed simultaneously with a different type of intraocular lens surgery in the other eye, and 1 bilateral intracapsular procedure. Outcome measures were postoperative best spectacle-corrected visual acuity (BSCVA), intraoperative and postoperative complication rates, and conjunctival swab culture results.

Eighty-three percent of patients (75% of eyes) with measured preoperative and postoperative BSCVA achieved an acuity of 6/12 or better. Intraoperative and postoperative complication rates were similar to those in previous reports of unilateral extracapsular surgery and simultaneous bilateral cataract surgery. Endophthalmitis occurred in 1 eye (0.19%). There were no bilateral complications that resulted in visual loss. Cultures were positive from 42% of conjunctival swabs; 81% of positive cultures were coagulase-negative Staphylococcus and 10% were Staphylococcus aureus.

Simultaneous bilateral cataract surgery did not lead to an increased incidence of serious intraoperative or postoperative complications, and visual acuity results were good.