Incidence and Risk Factors for Chronic Uveitis following Cataract Surgery

Abstract

Purpose: To determine the incidence of and associated risk factors for uveitis after cataract surgery.

Methods: A total of 17,757 eyes were identified and records of 42 eyes that developed uveitis and 2320 eyes that did not were reviewed. Postsurgical uveitis was defined as persistent inflammation for ≥6 months after surgery.

Results: Forty-two eyes of 35 patients developed uveitis (0.24%). Eleven patients underwent consecutive cataract surgery but developed unilateral uveitis, and intraoperative complications occurred in 55% of uveitic eyes compared to 0% in fellow eyes (p < 0.05). Median duration of inflammation was 8 and 11.5 months in eyes with and without vitrectomy (p < 0.05). Intraocular complications occurred in 44 and 8.3% of eyes that did and did not develop uveitis, respectively (p = 0.01).

Conclusions: Postsurgical uveitis developed after approximately 1 in 400 cataract surgeries and occurred more frequently in eyes experiencing intraoperative complications.

• Cataract surgery
• phacoemulsification
• postoperative inflammation
• postsurgical
• uveitis
• vitrectomy

Notes

*Presented in part at the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology Annual Meeting, May 2011 and 2012, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA. Author contributions: Design of study (SK); conduct of study, collection of data, management of study, analysis of data, interpretation of data, and preparation, review, and approval of manuscript (CP, SK, AC, MS).