[Results after cataract surgery]

This study reports the short term surgical results in a consecutive series of 1473 patients undergoing cataract surgery (60% planned extracapsular cataract extraction (ECCE) and 40% phacoemulsification (KPE) on an outpatient basis in a major university eye clinic. Preoperatively, 80% of all cases had a corrected visual acuity of 0.3 (6/18) or lower. On the first day after surgery, 51% of all patients had a corrected visual acuity of 0.5 (6/12) or better and 9% had a visual acuity of 1.0 (20/20) or better. The unaided visual acuity was 0.5 (6/12) or better in 20% of all patients (78% of these after KPE). The average postoperative refraction was -0.43 D (+/- 1.03 D SD, range -6.00 D to +5.00 D). A significant improvement in refractive error was achieved in many patients. The mean intraocular lens (IOL) power prediction error was found to be +0.04 D (+/- 0.84 D). The surgically induced astigmatism (vector analysis) was found to be +4.91 D (+/- 2.08) in the ECCE cases and +1.37 D (+/- 1.38) in the KPE cases (p < 0.001). Capsular or zonular rupture and/or vitreous loss occurred in 43 (2.9%) of which 26 (1.8%) received an anterior chamber lens rather than the intended posterior chamber lens. The results of this study document the favourable results of modern cataract surgery.