[Adult cataract surgery in Aquitaine: motivations, technical procedures and results. Inventory in 1999].
OBJECTIVE
Cataract surgery in the Aquitaine department in France has been investigated in terms of motivations, technical procedures, and results.


METHODS
Observations were made from a retrospective sample of 500 operations performed during the last 3 months of 1999. Information was collected concerning patient motivation, the technical aspects of the operation, inpatient or outpatient management, the major follow-up events and the functional results.


RESULTS
The study showed substantially altered visual function in most of the patients before the operation, very few preliminary technical investigations, a phacoemulsification procedure in 97% of the cases, and 95% good or very good results. Outpatient surgery was performed in 33% cases, comparable to the 23% average in France over the same period of time. Two cases of endophthalmia were diagnosed and successfully treated. Secondary cataract appeared in 16 patients during the 6-month follow-up period.


CONCLUSIONS
These results show that practices in Aquitaine comply with current standards. They suggest that all the components necessary to further development of cataract surgery are in place, as long as the surgical supply is able to respond to the increasing demand.
Direction Régionale du Service Médical de l'Assurance Maladie d'Aquitaine, CNAMTS, 80, avenue de la jallère, BP 250, 33028 Bordeaux. claude.peter@ersm-aquitaine.cnamts.fr
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D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002387:Cataract Extraction; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005602:France; D006801:Humans; D007297:Inpatients; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009042:Motivation; D010045:Outpatients; D018918:Phacoemulsification; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012737:Sex Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013997:Time Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014792:Visual Acuity