Glaucoma following childhood cataract surgery: the South India experience

To determine the characteristics and risk factors for the development of glaucoma after cataract surgery in children seen at a major referral tertiary eye centre in South India.

This is a retrospective review of the medical records of consecutive patients seen at the glaucoma/paediatric eye clinic of the centre, with a diagnosis of glaucoma secondary to aphakia/pseudophakia over a 5-year period.

There were 21 eyes of 14 children that developed glaucoma and 23 eyes of 12 children were selected as control. The mean age (standard deviation SD) at the time of cataract surgery for the glaucoma group was 7.4 (± 10.1) months and 39.13 (± 41.2) months for the control. The mean follow-up (SD) period was 114.29 (± 61.9) months and 97.61 (± 43.5) months for the glaucoma and control, respectively. The mean duration from cataract surgery to onset of glaucoma was 81.19 (± 52.4) months (median 66 months, range 21–172 months). Multivariate analysis detected age at surgery younger than 12 months (OR 10.45, 95%CI 1.76–62.03, p = 0.010) and ocular anomalies mainly microcornea (OR 7.11, 95%CI 1.14–44.46, p = 0.036) as risk factors for development of glaucoma after paediatric cataract surgery.

Glaucoma can develop several years after childhood cataract surgery. Surgery in the first year of life and microcornea are risk factors for the development of glaucoma post-surgery. Signs of glaucoma should specifically be looked for during follow-up visits.