Abstract:

Objective To investigate the impact of unilateral or bilateral cataract surgery on vision health related quality of life. Methods Two hundred and fifty-eight patients with cataract undergoing phacoemulsification with intraocular lens implantation were selected, with the mean age of (73.16±10.79) years. The quality of life was investigated in patients undergoing unilateral cataract surgery (groupⅠ, n=136) or bilateral cataract surgery (groupⅡ, n=122) with Chinese-version low vision quality-of-life questionnaire (CLVQOL) before surgery and 3 months after surgery, the scores of vision health related quality of life (VRQOL) were calculated and compared between groups, and the influential factors were analysed. Results There was no significant difference in the scores of VRQOL, weighted average logarithm of minimum angle of resolution (logMAR) visual acuity, age, time of education, gender, systemic or ocular comorbidities before operation between two groups (P>0.05), and there was also no significant difference in the prevalences of surgical complications between two groups (P>0.05). Three months after surgery, there were significant differences in the improvement of weighted average logMAR visual acuity between groupⅠ and groupⅡ (0.42±0.38 vs 0.63±0.53, P=0.04), while there was no significant difference in the improvement of VRQOL scores between groupⅠand groupⅡ (P=0.112). Multivariate analysis indicated that ways of surgery (unilateral or bilateral surgery) was less important factor to the improvement of scores of VRQOL (P=0.054). Conclusion In elder patients with high preoperative disease burden, either unilateral or bilateral cataract surgery could bring improvement to vision health related quality of life, and there is no significant difference between these two ways of surgery.

Key words: cataract, visual acuity, quality of life, unilateral eye operation, bilateral eye operation