The influence of age on characteristics of cataract patients.

The influence of age on 12 pre-, 1 intra-, and 2 postoperative patients' characteristics was investigated in 1261 consecutively performed extracapsular cataract extractions. The following characteristics were shown to be significantly associated with increasing age; cardiovascular disease (p < 0.0005), female gender (p < 0.0005), nuclear sclerosis (p < 0.0005), maculopathy (p < 0.0005), corneal guttate (p = 0.008) and reducing visual acuity in the fellow eye (p < 0.0005). Further, inadequate mydriasis at start of surgery was significantly associated with increasing age even after adjusting for glaucoma and pseudoexfoliation (p = 0.0007). After adjusting for pseudoexfoliation, a statistically significant relationship still existed between age and glaucoma (p = 0.0235). Even after controlling for relevant variables, i.e. maculopathy, a highly significant association was found between reducing visual acuity 4 months postoperatively and increasing age (p < 0.00005). Diabetes mellitus, the degree of cataract maturity, preoperative visual acuity of the operating eye, vitreous loss and postoperative inflammatory response were not significantly associated with increasing age.