K Pesudovs, DJ Coster
Department of Ophthalmology, Flinders Medical Centre and Flinders University of South Australia

The aim of this project was to look at the impact of cataract surgery on measures of visual function and visual disability.

Cataract surgery was performed on 121 patients (56 without ocular comorbidity and 65 with ocular comorbidity). Visual disability was assessed with the Visual Disability Assessment, a previously validated questionnaire. A battery of tests of visual function were applied pre- and post-operatively. These included visual acuity (VA), low contrast VA (LCVA) with and without glare, Pelli-Robson contrast sensitivity (PRCS) with and without glare and the Panel D15 test. The changes in measures were assessed using repeated measures ANOVA. The connection between changes in visual function and changes in visual disability was explored using linear regression and partial least squares path analysis.

In our patient group, cataract surgery leads to a significant improvement in all measures of visual function and all scales of visual disability. This holds for groups with bilateral or unilateral cataract and for patients with or without ocular comorbidity. However, the improvement is of lesser magnitude for unilateral cataract and improvement is limited by ocular comorbidity. Path analysis demonstrates that the improvement in visual disability is linked to the improvement in visual function.

Cataract surgery improves visual function and visual disability. The improvement in visual disability is due to the improvement in visual function.