Cataract Surgery Tied to Lower Death Risk for Patients With Vision Loss

According to a Press Release earlier this month, cataract is a leading cause of visual loss and affects for more than half of Americans by the time they are 80 years old. Those who'd had cataract surgery had a 40 percent lower long-term risk of death than those who did not have surgery, according to the study published in the September issue of the journal Ophthalmology.

Previous studies have suggested that older people with cataract-related vision loss had a higher risk of death than people the same age with normal vision, and that cataract surgery might reduce this risk.

"Our finding complements the previously documented associations between visual impairment and increased mortality among older persons," study co-leader Jie Jin Wang, of the Westmead Millennium Institute, said in a journal news release. "It suggests to ophthalmologists that correcting cataract patients' visual impairment in their daily practice results in improved outcomes beyond that of the eye and vision, and has important impacts on general health."

The reasons why cataract surgery may reduce death risk aren't clear, but may be due to factors such as better physical and emotional well-being, an improved ability to comply with prescription medications and greater confidence associated with independent living.

You can read the original article published by Robert Preidt on MedicineNet.

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