Cataract surgery may not speed progression of AMD

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According to a study published in the Nov. issue of the journal Archives of Ophthalmology, cataract surgery doesn't appear to speed the progression of age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

Investigators examined 71 eyes of patients with non-neovascular AMD before, and at one week and one year after they had cataract surgery. They discovered progression to neovascular AMD occurred in 4.6 percent of the eyes between one week and one year after cataract surgery, compared with three percent for cataract-free eyes.

Medscape reported that an accompanying editorial by Barbara E. K. Klein, MD, MPH pointed out that several reports have shown an association between cataract surgery and AMD since the late 1980s, and that the diversity of findings in no small part begins with differences in study design.

Nevertheless, discussing these inconsistencies will help patients and their doctors make a more informed decision about the risks for progression to early AMD and development of late AMD after cataract surgery

Posted in: Macular Degeneration