Cataract surgery and diabetic retinopathy.

The introduction of extracapsular cataract extraction (or phacoemulsification) with placement of a posterior chamber intraocular lens is a major benefit to diabetics because it probably does not lead to as rapid an acceleration of retinopathy as does intracapsular cataract extraction. Nevertheless, because many patients develop anterior chamber complications and neovascularization or severe macular edema, considerable caution is required. All patients must have close postoperative follow-up. Patients with preoperative macular edema have the worst prognosis, but the timing of treatment for postoperative macular edema remains to be worked out. All of the papers included in this review shed light on this challenging problem.