Analysis of limbal approach lensectomy and anterior vitrectomy for congenital cataract

The authors retrospectively investigated intra- and postoperative complications and visual prognosis in 143 eyes of 86 cases who underwent limbal approach lensectomy and anterior vitrectomy for congenital or developmental cataract. Iris damage (13%), luxation of lens fragments into the vitreous cavity (4%) and hyphema (9%) were found as intraoperative complications. Iris damage did not affect postoperative fibrin net formation outcome of visual acuity. As for postoperative complications, vitreoretinal hemorrhage (11%), fibrin net formation (22%), cystoid macular edema (4%), glaucoma (6%), after-cataract (1%) and retinal detachment (0.7%) were noted. Only one eye suffered from retinal detachment, the most serious complication in our study. The best postoperative visual acuities were better than 20/50 in 67% of the bilateral cases and 36% of the unilateral cases. These results suggest that the limbal approach method is useful for congenital cataract surgery.