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Unilateral Congenital Cataracts

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Pediatric Cataract Surgery and IOL Implantation

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Abstract

Unilateral congenital cataracts are believed to result from localized ocular dysgenesis. Approximately 80–90% of unilateral cataracts are idiopathic. They are rarely associated with systemic anomalies and hence do not require systemic workup. Nuclear cataracts are common. Posterior capsule plaques are frequently encountered with unilateral congenital cataracts. Persistent fetal vasculature (PFV) poses special challenges in management. Early diagnosis and prompt treatment are critical for visually significant unilateral congenital cataracts owing to competition from the dominant normal eye. Preoperative counselling should stress the importance of full-time optical correction and amblyopia management. The visual outcomes are limited by early onset of deprivation amblyopia.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    Crystal S. Y. Cheung & Bharti R. Nihalani

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  1. Crystal S. Y. Cheung
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  2. Bharti R. Nihalani
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Correspondence to Bharti R. Nihalani .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ophthalmology, Johns Hopkins Hospital Wilmer Eye Institute, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Courtney L. Kraus

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The authors have no financial disclosure or proprietary interest that is relevant to the manuscript.

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Cheung, C.S.Y., Nihalani, B.R. (2020). Unilateral Congenital Cataracts. In: Kraus, C. (eds) Pediatric Cataract Surgery and IOL Implantation. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-38938-3_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-38938-3_3

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-38937-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-38938-3

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