Pediatric cataract surgery remains a very important and difficult problem to manage and involves a team effort, the most important members of which are parents. While dramatic advances have occurred in this field during the past 10 years, some technical aspects of surgery, changing refraction, and functional outcome continue to pose significant problems. Manual capsulorhexis remains the gold standard for a successful outcome of pediatric cataract surgery as well as in deciding intraocular lens (IOL) placement. Primary management of the posterior capsule with or without anterior vitrectomy is mandatory depending on age of the child at surgery. Primary implantation of the IOL after cataract removal is gaining popularity, even for infants and young children. Predicting axial growth and the refractive change that accompanies it is one of the major challenges for the long-term care of children after surgery. The evaluation of rate of axial growth and its correlation with age at surgery, laterality, aphakia/pseudophakia, and visual axis obscuration is a positive step in this direction. Finally, appropriate visual rehabilitation and amblyopia therapy are the cornerstones for the child’s final visual development.
Visual rehabilitation in pediatric cataract with primary intraocular lens implantation
