title: The gender issue in congenital and developmental cataract surgery.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To describe the demographic pattern of congenital cataract surgery at a referral ophthalmology center in Iran and to evaluate any possible difference between the genders.
  
  
  METHODS
  Subjects aged 15 years or less scheduled for cataract surgery were enrolled in this cross-sectional study. Data was retrieved from the electronic medical records according to the ICD-10 coding system. Age and proportion of operations by sex were the main parameters of interest. We employed analysis of covariance to compare age at surgery and logistic regression to obtain the trend for the number of cataract procedures in boys and girls.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Overall, 314 congenital cataract procedures were performed during the study period, 55 (17.5%) of which were related to second eye surgery. Operated eyes belonged to male subjects in 172 (54.8%) cases and female subjects in 142 (45.2%) cases. Mean age at operation for both first and second eyes was 3.2±3.0 years overall, and 3.1±2.9 versus 3.4±3.0 years in girls and boys, respectively (P= 0.62). Surgery was performed before one year of age in 33.2% and before 5 years in 75% of cases. Among patients undergoing second eye surgery, girls presented significantly later than boys (at 4.2±3.3 vs. 2.6±1.7 years, P= 0.012).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The rate of congenital/infantile cataract surgery in boys was almost 10% higher than girls. We observed a significant difference only regarding age at second eye surgery which comprised 17.5% of all operations. One third and two thirds of the procedures were performed under the age of one and five years, respectively.
authors.affiliation: Ophthalmic Epidemiology and Prevention of Blindness Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran ; Ophthalmic Research Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Marzieh
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Katibeh
authors.affiliation: Ophthalmic Research Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Armen
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Eskandari
authors.affiliation: Ophthalmic Research Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran ; Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Mehdi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yaseri
authors.affiliation: Ophthalmic Epidemiology and Prevention of Blindness Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Sara
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hosseini
authors.affiliation: Ophthalmic Research Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Hossein
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ziaei
keywords: Congenital Cataract; Gender; Socioeconomic Factors