Perception of visual outcomes in patients after delayed compared with immediately sequential bilateral cataract surgery

To evaluate patient-reported visual outcomes of immediately sequential bilateral cataract surgery (ISBCS) compared with delayed sequential bilateral cataract surgery (DSBCS).

Tertiary university teaching hospital of Laval University, Quebec City, Canada.

Prospective observational cohort study.

The Catquest-9SF questionnaire was administered on the day of surgery for ISBCS patients and on the day of first-eye surgery for DSBCS patients who underwent cataract surgery between August and September 2021. The questionnaire was administered again 1 month postoperatively for ISBCS patients and 1 month postoperatively after each surgery for DSBCS patients.

186 patients (ISBCS: n = 152 vs DSBCS: n = 34) were included. At 1 month postoperatively, the Catquest-9SF score of ISBCS patients was significantly lower than that of DSBCS patients after first-eye surgery ( P < .001). Furthermore, the ISBCS group achieved significantly better scores on multiple tasks of the Catquest-9SF, such as reading text in the newspaper ( P < .001) or reading text on television ( P < .001). In multiple linear regression analysis, the type of surgery was the factor most associated with a lower Catquest-9SF score (β = -0.391, P < .001). 1 month after the second-eye surgery, DSBCS patients had achieved similar Catquest-9SF scores compared with ISBCS patients.

Compared with DSBCS patients, ISBCS patients had significantly greater perceived visual function and fewer vision-related limitations in their daily activities at 1 month postoperatively. This difference lost significance 1 month after the second-eye surgery of DSBCS patients. This patient-reported outcome study did not find evidence of perceived bilateral visual impairment in the early postoperative period after ISBCS.