Diabetes patients likely to develop macula oedema after cataract surgery

Patients with Type 2 diabetes undergoing cataract surgery are twice as likely to develop macula oedema than patients without diabetes, according to Anna Wikberg-Matsson and colleagues from Uppsala University, Sweden.

A consecutive, prospective, randomized study followed two groups of patients, 40 with simplex retinopathy and 40 healthy patients, after cataract surgery. Preoperative visual acuity (VA) in the diabetes group was 0.4 and 0.5 in the control group.

At six-weeks follow-up, the VA was 0.5 and 0.8 in the diabetes and the control group, respectively whilst at six months the VA was 0.77 and 0.9, respectively. Macula oedema was seen in 77% of the diabetes patients at the six-week time point and in 30% of the controls. At six weeks, macula volume had increased in both groups but there was a significant difference between the two groups (p<0.05).

It was concluded by the researchers that patients with Type 2 diabetes are twice as likely to develop macula oedema following cataract surgery than healthy subjects.