 Advertisement | ||||||||
 | ||||||||
|
||||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
||
|
From the Department of Ophthalmology (Hodge, Albiani, Buhrmann, O'Connor, Blair, Lowcock), University of Ottawa Eye Institute; the Chalmers Research Group (Hodge, Horsley), Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute; and the Faculty of Medicine (Baryla, Belliveau), University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ont.
Correspondence to: Dr. William Hodge, University of Ottawa Eye Institute, 501 Smyth Rd., Ottawa ON K1H 8L6; whodge{at}ottawahospital.on.ca
Background: Cataract surgery is the most common operative procedure performed in Canada, and how patients are affected by wait times for this surgery has important clinical, public health and health policy considerations. We conducted a systematic review to understand the relation between wait time for cataract surgery and patient outcomes and the variables that modify this relation.
Methods: We performed an electronic search of 11 databases and the proceedings of 4 conferences. The search was restricted to studies published after the transition to phacoemulsification (1990). We assessed the quality of the included studies using the Jadad Scale for randomized controlled trials and the Newcastle–Ottawa Scale for cohort and case–control studies. The data were found to be inappropriate for meta-analysis, thus we performed a qualitative synthesis.
Results: We found a total of 27 studies that met our inclusion criteria. When these studies were reviewed, a dichotomy was observed for the wait time–outcome relation: outcomes associated with wait times of 
6 weeks were better than outcomes associated with wait times of 
6 months. Patients who waited more than 6 months to receive cataract surgery experienced more vision loss, a reduced quality of life and had an increased rate of falls compared with patients who had wait times of less than 6 weeks. The outcomes associated with wait times between 6 weeks and 6 months remain unclear.
Interpretation: Patients who wait more than 6 months for cataract surgery may experience negative outcomes during the wait period, including vision loss, a reduced quality of life and an increased rate of falls.
This article has been cited by other articles:
|
|
 |
|
  S. Garcia Gutierrez, A. Bilbao, J. M. Beguiristain, G. Navarro, J. Martinez Tapias, J. A. Blasco, J. M. Quintana, and the IRYSS Cataract Group Variability in the prioritization of patients for cataract extraction Int. J. Qual. Health Care, February 3, 2010; (2010): mzq002v1 - mzq002. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 F. W.-k. Chan, A. H. Fan, F. Y.-y. Wong, P. T.-h. Lam, E.-k. Yeoh, C. H.-k. Yam, S. Griffiths, D. S.-c. Lam, and N. Congdon Waiting Time for Cataract Surgery and Its Influence on Patient Attitudes Invest. Ophthalmol. Vis. Sci., August 1, 2009; 50(8): 3636 - 3642. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 A. Zhou, N. Weizblit, and J. Noble Answer: Answer to Ophthaproblem Can Fam Physician, December 1, 2008; 54(12): 1700 - 1700. [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 S Subzwari, E Desapriya, G Scime, S Babul, K Jivani, and I Pike Effectiveness of cataract surgery in reducing driving-related difficulties: a systematic review and meta-analysis Inj. Prev., October 1, 2008; 14(5): 324 - 328. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 E Desapriya, G Scime, I Pike, P Joshi, and S Subzwari Cost effectiveness of cataract surgery Br J Ophthalmol, May 1, 2008; 92(5): 722 - 722. [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 R. Lehman Evidently... Evid. Based Med., August 1, 2007; 12(4): 103 - 103. [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
Other articles noted Evid. Based Med., August 1, 2007; 12(4): 127 - 128. [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
Read all eLetters
| HOME | CURRENT ISSUE | PAST ISSUES | COLLECTIONS | HELP | SEARCH |
|
|||||
|
Copyright 1995-2007, Canadian Medical Association. All rights reserved. ISSN 1488-2329
(e) 0820-3946 (p)
All editorial matter in CMAJ represents the opinions of the authors and not necessarily those of the Canadian Medical Association. |
|||||
