Abstract
Purpose: :
To investigate the long-term characteristics and changes of presenile cataracts in Korean.
Methods: :
The subjects aged from 30 to 49 years and underwent cataract surgeries at St. Mary’s hospital from 1995 to 2004(n=976) were included in this study. Retrospective study was performed. Patients with histories of ocular trauma or uveitis and those received combined surgeries were excluded. Histories of diabetes and hypertension, types of lens opacities, and preoperative and postoperative visual acuities were analyzed. Lens opacity grading had been conducted by using LOCSIII. To see the change with the passage of time Cochran-Armitage proportion trend test was used.
Results: :
Eyes that had surgeries for presenile cataracts over 10 years contributed 8.8%. Among them 10.0% and 7.8% accompanied diabetes and hypertension, respectively. Eyes with anterior polar(AP) opacities, posterior subcapsular(PSC) opacities, AP and PSC opacities, cortical opacities, and nuclear opacities accounted for 35.7%, 35.1%, 7.0%, 6.0%, and 5.4% in order. 92.7% showed best corrected visual acuity more than 20/40 at 2 months after the surgery. Presenile cataracts with diabetes showed no significant increase with the passage of time(p = 0.4767, CI 95%) but hypertension showed statistically significant increase (p = 0.0049, CI 95%).
Conclusions: :
The prevalence of presenile cataracts in Korea was relatively higher. Predominance in AP and PSC opacity and male was observed in presenile cataracts. Associated hypertension showed statistically significant increase with the passage of time.