Patient‐reported visual function outcomes in immediately sequential versus delayed sequential bilateral cataract surgery
Mads Assenholt Nielsen, Jakob Bjerager, Gülsenay Citirak, Lars Morten Holm, Esben Nielsen, Yousif Subhi, Amardeep SinghAbstract
Purpose
To compare patient‐reported visual function outcomes of immediate sequential bilateral cataract surgery (ISBCS) and delayed sequential bilateral cataract surgery (DSBCS).
Methods
Single‐center, randomised controlled trial of patients eligible for bilateral cataract surgery allocated to ISBCS or DSBCS. Patients filled out the Catquest‐7SF questionnaire before surgery, 1 week after surgery, and 3 months after surgery.
Results
Ninety‐eight patients were included for analysis (ISBCS = 51; DSBCS = 47). In both groups, there was a statistically significant improvement in Catquest‐7SF patient‐reported outcomes after surgery (p < 0.001), and no difference between the ISBCS and DSBCS groups (p ≥ 0.424). At both 1 week and 3 months post‐surgery, a statistically significantly higher proportion of patients were “very satisfied” with the surgical approach in the ISBCS group (94.1% at both 1 week and 3 months) compared to the DSBCS group (55.3% at 1 week and 63.8% at 3 months), both p < 0.001.
Conclusions
Both ISBCS and DSBCS are effective options to treat bilateral cataracts with no statistically significant difference in patient‐reported vision outcomes. However, we found postoperative satisfaction with the surgical approach to be higher among ISBCS patients, which suggests that ISBCS‐related benefits, such as fewer health care visits and shorter vision rehabilitation, are compelling to patients.