Abstract
Purpose: :
To determine if diabetes mellitus (DM) is a risk factor for having post-operative elevated intraocular pressure (IOP) in patients undergoing cataract surgery compared to non-diabetic controls.
Methods: :
This study was a retrospective chart review of 576 consecutive cataract surgeries performed on 474 patients at a University Hospital center over 3 years. Both male and female patients undergoing phacoemulsification were divided into two groups: 1) patients with DM and 2) patients without DM. The main outcome measure was postoperative IOP at post-operative visit (POV) #1 and POV #2.
Results: :
A total of 576 cataract cases were performed on 474 patients. 325 cataract surgeries were performed on patients without DM and 251 cataract surgeries were performed on patients with DM. In all patients, a total of 61 patients were identified as having the post-operative complication of elevated IOP at POV #1. Of the 325 patients without DM, 25 (7.69%) had elevated IOP at POV #1, with an average IOP of 32.95 mmHg. 22 of these patients were treated with at least 1 medication to control elevated IOP. Of the 251 patients that had DM, 36 (14.3%) had elevated IOP at POV #1, with an average IOP of 31.85 mmHg. 26 of these patients were treated with at least 1 medication to control elevated IOP. Only 1 patient (.3%) without DM continued to have elevated IOP at POV#2 compared with 5 patients (2%) with DM. Patients with DM undergoing cataract extraction were almost twice as likely to have increased IOP (14.3%) compared to patients without DM (7.69%) at POV #1 with a p-value of .01.
Conclusions: :
In this study, diabetics were found to be clinically significant more likely to have the post-operative complication of elevated IOP compared to non-diabetics by almost a factor of two at their first POV. IOP was elevated enough that the majority of the patients needed treatment. This data suggests that IOP should be closely monitored in diabetics after cataract surgery.
Keywords: cataract • diabetes • intraocular pressure