gms | German Medical Science

Depending on the refractive error of the eye, cataract extraction is more or less difficult to perform, as nanophthalmus and greater myopia cause more complications peri-operatively than emetropic eyes. In this study, we compared the power of intra-ocular lenses used at one University hospital with those throughout the whole of Germany.

We compared the refractive power of intra-ocular lenses used at one University hospital with data for the whole of Germany for lenses provided by Morcher (all types of posterior chamber lenses), Corneal (ACR6D SE), and AMO (Sensar and Phacoflex).

In 2001 and 2002, 3,885 implantations of posterior chamber intra-ocular lenses were carried out at one University hospital. The ratios of the power of posterior chamber intraocular lenses lower then 20 diopters and greater than 25 diopters, respectivley, were, for the University hospital 20.43%/25.40%, for Morcher 20.76%/8.16%, for Corneal 10.43%/18.32%, for Sensar 18.94%/8.22% and for Phacoflex 18.46%/8.75%. A lower amplitude is apparent in the graph for the University hospital data.

At a University hospital, the percentage of lower and higher power posterior chamber lenses is greater when compared to the whole of Germany. It therefore appears that it is more difficult to perform cataract extractions in a health care centre such as a University hospital, where there is a maximum degree of difficulty.