Lens induced glaucomas--visual results and risk factors for final visual acuity

Lens induced glaucomas are a common occurrence in India. An attempt was made to understand the clinical modes of presentation and post operative visual results in 93 patients with lens induced glaucoma, 49 phacomorphic and 44 phacolytic, attending our institute during 1994. All these patients were subjected to a planned extracapsular cataract extraction. Forty four percent had a posterior chamber intraocular lens implantation following surgery. Fifty seven percent eyes with phacomorphic glaucoma and 61% with phacolytic glaucoma recovered visual acuity of 6/12 or better. There was no significant difference in the final visual acuity between those patients who had an intraocular lens implanted and those who did not (P = 0.18). Univariate analysis was performed for selected risk factors such as age, sex and duration of glaucomatous process as predictors of final visual acuity and odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals were calculated. Patients with age more than 60 years (OR = 2.7, 95% CI = 1.04-6.93) and in whom the glaucoma was present for more than 5 days (OR = 3.1, 95% CI = 1.21-8.13) had a significantly higher risk of poor visual outcome post-operatively.