(November 12, 2009 - Insidermedicine)

Cataract surgery does not appear to increase the risk of progression of age-related macular degeneration, or AMD, as was once feared, according to research published in the November issue of the Archives of Ophthalmology.

Here is some information about AMD:

•    It is a disease associated with aging that results in reductions in sharp, central vision

•    It affects the macula, or center of the retina, which allows you to see fine detail

•    It is a painless condition that usually advances slowly, making it difficult to detect

Researchers from Stony Brook University School of Medicine in New York examined the eyes of over 100 patients with early AMD who were about to undergo cataract surgery. The investigators took photographs of the patients’ retinas and conducted tests that help evaluate blood vessels in the eyes. They conducted these tests prior to cataract surgery as well as one week, three months, and one year afterwards.

Before surgery, 86 eyes were found to have an early form of AMD called non-neovascular age related macular degeneration. During the year following cataract surgery, among 71 eyes for which evaluable test results were available, a more advanced form of AMD, called neovascular AMD, was found in about 13%. In five of these affected eyes, tests undergone one week after surgery suggested that neovascular AMD was probably present before surgery took place but was not identified. When these eyes as well as another eye without adequate follow-up information were excluded from the analysis, the progression rate of AMD from non-neovascular to neovascular during the year following cataract surgery was less than 5%.

Today’s research contradicts earlier fears that cataract surgery stimulates the progression of AMD. What is more likely is that the surgery makes previously missed cases of AMD easier to identify.