[Refraction in pseudophakic eyes after surgical treatment of congenital cataracts]

The optimal method of correcting aphakia in infants with congenital cataract (CC) is intraocular correction. Considering the growth of the eyes, most authors implant an IOL with lower dioptric power to try to anticipate the refractive indices after the growth, which in some cases do not match the prediction.

To evaluate the achieved refraction and its relation to the anterior-posterior axis of pseudophakic eyes after extraction of CC in children of up to one year of age.

The study included 115 children (159 eyes) examined 1 to 11 years after the extraction of bilateral or unilateral CC at the age of 2-11 months. Optical power of the implanted IOL had been calculated using SRKII formula for hypercorrection to result in emmetropic or weak myopic refraction by the time the eye growth finishes. The subjects underwent autorefractometry on Retinomax K-Plus 3 device and ultrasonic biometry on Humphrey 835 A/B-scan system.

The incidence of unplanned refraction in children aged 1 to 3 years was 61.2%, aged 3 years to 5 years 11 months - 24.4%, and in children of 6-11 years - 50.0%; it was associated with pronounced unplanned eye growth in 48.6% of cases with bilateral CC and in 27.3% of cases with unilateral CC.

The main cause of unplanned refraction in pseudophakic eyes in children with CC is unpredictable increase of the length of anterior-posterior axis after surgery.