time trend and prevalence of second-eye cataract surgery in labbafinejad hospital

purpose: to investigate the proportion and time trend of second-eye senile cataract surgery (secs) in a high-turnover academic center in iran. methods: in this cross-sectional study, samples were selected among all records of senile cataract surgery based on the international statistical classification of diseases and related health problems, 10th revision (icd-10) during four consecutive years (2006-2009). utilizing hospital's computer-based records, 15% of records were included by systematic random selection. patient’s demographics as well as surgical data were assessed. the proportion of annual secs was considered as the main outcome measurement and the time trend was calculated through linear regression model. results: of total senile cataract surgeries (n=10517) performed over a 4-year period (between 2006 and 2009), 1585 (15%) were retrieved randomly. among these, 1139 records [71.8%: 95% confidence interval (ci): 69.5-74.1] were related to the first eye operation and 446 (28.2%; 95% ci: 25.9-30.35) were related to the second eye. the proportion of secs was increased from 24.6 % in 2006 to 33.4% in 2009 (p=0.01), with a linear increase in the trend of secs (b=0.031, p=0.003). overall, median (inter quartiles range) of time interval between two cataract surgeries was 9 (4-24) months which remained unchanged during the study period. secs rate and time interval were independent of age, sex, and the type of insurance during the study period. secs was 10.4% higher (p=0.01) and time interval was 13 months lower (p=0.007) in patients who underwent phacoemulcification in the first eye as compared to those who had extra capsular cataract extraction in their first eyes, (29.9% vs 19.5%, p= 0.01). conclusion: recently, there has been an increase in the number of senile cataract surgery and secs which contributed one-third of total cataract surgeries.