Antiplatelet therapy and cataract surgery

To gain information about patients who continue antiplatelet therapy while having cataract surgery, we performed a prospective, nonrandomized study. Twenty-four of 60 phacoemulsification procedures were performed on patients who were receiving medications with antiplatelet activity prior to surgery and who continued to receive the medications for the duration of the study. The remaining 36 procedures were performed on patients who received no medications with antiplatelet activity prior to surgery. One patient in the antiplatelet therapy group had a limited peribulbar hemorrhage, and one patient not receiving antiplatelet therapy had a postoperative hyphema. Postoperative subconjunctival hemorrhages were more common in the antiplatelet therapy group (P = .001). No patient in the antiplatelet therapy group had late postoperative complications. No differences in postoperative visual acuity or intraocular pressure were observed between the groups. Our results demonstrate that phacoemulsification and posterior chamber intraocular lens implantation can be performed without serious complications in some patients who continue to use antiplatelet therapy. However, our sample sizes were too small to determine whether such therapy is associated with any increased risk of rare but serious hemorrhagic complications.