[Should patients with age-related macular degeneration have cataract surgery?]

To study the progression of visual acuity (VA) and retinal abnormalities in patients with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) after cataract surgery.

Forty eyes of 25 patients with AMD who had had cataract surgery were included in the study. They were divided up into two groups according to AMD stage: the first group with drusen and retinal pigmented epithelium abnormalities and the second in the severe stages of age-related macular degeneration with atrophy and neovascularization.

In the first group (15 eyes), we found an improvement in VA in 93.3% of the eyes. New manifestations of neovascularization appeared in only one eye (6.7%) 1 year after surgery. In the second group (25 eyes), we found atrophy in 80% of the eyes and neovascularization in 20% of the eyes before surgery. There was an improvement in VA after cataract surgery in 68% of the eyes, and in three eyes (17%) VA worsened.

In our study, patients with AMD improved VA and quality of life after cataract surgery. The same results of VA improvement after surgery can be found in the literature. However, no conclusions can be made concerning the progression of fundus lesions on a short term, though it seems that cataract surgery may accelerate the progression of AMD lesions 5 years after surgery.