Recognising ‘high-risk’ eyes before cataract surgery

Certain eyes are at a higher risk of complication during cataract surgery. Operations on such ‘high-risk’ eyes are also more likely to yield a poor visual outcome (defined as best corrected vision less than 6/60 after surgery).1 Learning to recognise when eyes are at greater risk, and acting accordingly, will help you to avoid complications. Even so, before the operation takes place, it is good practice to explain to such patients that a poor outcome is a possibility. This makes these patients’ expectations more realistic and improves postoperative compliance and follow-up. In most cases, patients who are blind with complicated cataract will be happy with even a modest improvement of their vision. It is also important to have available all the equipment you may need to manage a possible complication, for example a vitrectomy machine in the case of capsular rupture and vitreous loss. Depending on where you are in the world, certain ‘high-risk’ eyes will be more common: for example, pseudoexfoliation in Somalia and India, onchocerciasis in Sudan, and angle-closure glaucoma in Asia. You will get to know your local problems as you perform more operations.