Cataract Surgery May Promote Longer Overall Survival

Timely cataract surgery resulting in enhanced vision was associated with a 40% reduction in mortality risk compared with no surgery, according to a new study published in the September issue of Ophthalmology.

The association, which was independent of variables such as number of medications and comorbid conditions, suggests that correcting visual impairment (VI) caused by cataracts has health benefits beyond merely improving eyesight, noted coauthor Jie Jin Wang, MMed, PhD, from the Centre for Vision Research, Department of Ophthalmology, and Westmead Millennium Institute, University of Sydney, and the Centre for Eye Research Australia, University of Melbourne, Australia, in a press release. The findings also support previous research showing a link between VI and increased mortality risk.

The investigators, lead by Calvin Sze-un Fong, MBBS, also from the Centre for Vision Research, Department of Ophthalmology, and Westmead Millennium Institute, used data from the Blue Mountains Eye Study (BMES) cohort, a prospective population-based study of vision and common eye diseases among older Australians. Study participants were aged 49 years or older at baseline and were living in a suburb of Sydney. They were identified in a door-to-door census and invited to have detailed baseline eye examinations between 1992 and 1994 (BMES I), with follow-up examinations in 1997-1999 (BMES II) and 2002-2004 (BMES III). Read More...