Cataract.

INTRODUCTION

Cataract accounts for over 47% of blindness worldwide, causing blindness in about 17.3 million people in 1990. Surgery for cataract in people with glaucoma may affect glaucoma control.

METHODS AND OUTCOMES

We conducted a systematic review and aimed to answer the following clinical questions: What are the effects of surgery for age-related cataract without other ocular comorbidity? What are the effects of treatment for age-related cataract in people with glaucoma? What are the effects of surgical treatments for age-related cataract in people with diabetic retinopathy? What are the effects of surgical treatments for age-related cataract in people with chronic uveitis? We searched: Medline, Embase, The Cochrane Library, and other important databases up to May 2010 (Clinical Evidence reviews are updated periodically; please check our website for the most up-to-date version of this review). We included harms alerts from relevant organisations such as the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).

RESULTS

We found 20 systematic reviews, RCTs, or observational studies that met our inclusion criteria. We performed a GRADE evaluation of the quality of evidence for interventions.

CONCLUSIONS

In this systematic review we present information relating to the effectiveness and safety of the following interventions: for people with cataract without other ocular co-morbidity: cataract surgery alone, cataract surgery with non-concomitant glaucoma surgery, concomitant cataract and glaucoma surgery, intracapsular extraction, manual (large or small) incision extracapsular extraction, and phaco extracapsular extraction; for people with cataract with co-morbid diabetic retinopathy: cataract surgery alone, and adding diabetic retinopathy treatment to cataract surgery; for people with cataract and co-morbid chronic uveitis: cataract surgery, and medical control of uveitis at the time of cataract surgery.