[Is there an ideal surgical time for retinitis pigmentosa patients with cataract?]

According to the literature, a fully developed cataract should be removed generally when the macula is intact. However, patients with a slowly progressing retinal disease find themselves in a particularly difficult situation. In this clinical, retrospective study, 24 retinitis-pigmentosa (RP) patients after cataract surgery were asked whether they recommend cataract surgery early or late in the course of the development of the retinal disease. A correlation was found between the answers to this question and the time elapsed between each patient's own operation and his interview. Three preference groups resulted through statistical evaluation: 1) those who recommend an early operation (n = 8), 2) those who recommend a late operation (n = 8), and 3) those who were undecided (n = 8). All patients had been operated at the same time following the RP onset and cataract diagnosis. Those patients who preferred a late operation had been questioned in this regard considerably later after their own operation than those who preferred an early operation. In other words, the preference for an early or late operation depended on how much prior to the questioning the patient's own operation had been conducted. The RP patient, quite disease conscious, has an exact conception of the ideal time of cataract operation in RP patients in general, but this does not always coincide with the opinion of his physician. It is considerably more necessary to consider the individual situation of the RP-patient than that of normal cataract patients.