[Cataract in children after autologous bone marrow transplantation. A common, but curable complication]

Bone marrow transplantation (BMT) is an established treatment of hematological malignancies in children. With a rapidly increasing number of long-term survivors, more attention is focused on late sequelae to this therapy. Several cataractogenic factors are involved in BMT, such as ionizing irradiation, corticosteroid treatment, and chemotherapeutic agents. Lens opacity is therefore a potential late side-effect of BMT. The incidence and degree of cataract in 29 children who had undergone autologous or syngeneic BMT were recorded. Median follow-up was eight years (4-10 years). 21 children had received total body irradiation prior to BMT; they all developed cataract of the posterior subcapsular type after three years (median). Six children needed surgical repair in the form of intraocular lens implantation after extracapsular cataract extraction.