PURPOSE: To study the pediatric cataract after trauma, it's relation to the kind of the trauma, the time elapsed between trauma and surgery and the correlation between corrected visual acuity and treatment. METHODS: We reviewed the medical records of all patients who presented diagnosis of traumatic cataract between August 1988 and December 2001 at the Congenital Cataract Service of Federal University of São Paulo. RESULTS: Sixty-six patients with diagnosis of pediatric cataract after trauma were studied, corresponding to an incidence of 4.80% of the total of cases attended in the service. Forty-seven (71.22%) were male and 19 (28.78%) were female. Forty-five (53.03%) sustained a blunt trauma, 21 (31.82%) a penetrating one, and 10 (15.15%) were not classified. The mean time between the injury and the surgery was 7 years and 6 months. The main described postoperative complications were uveitis sequels in 13 patients (21.12%) and posterior capsule opacification in 10 (15.15%). The initial and final visual acuity were obtained in 30 eyes. The mean follow-up was of two years, ranging from 1 to 96 months. CONCLUSION: The improvement of visual acuity was statistically significant (Wilcoxon test p < 0.001), being more intense in the eyes submitted to surgical treatment (p < 0.001) than in the eyes submitted to clinical treatment.
Cataract extraction; Cataract; Visual acuity; Wounds and injuries; Wounds, penetrating; Pseudophakia
