title: Congenital cataract: prevalence and surgery age at Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center (ZOC).
abstract: Congenital cataract (CC) is the primary cause of treatable childhood blindness. Population-based assessments of prevalence and surgery age of CC, which are critical for improving management strategies, have been unavailable in China until now. We conducted a hospital-based, cross-sectional study of the hospital charts of CC patients younger than 18 years old from January 2005 to December 2010 at Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center (ZOC) in Guangzhou, China. Residence, gender, age at surgery, hospitalization time, and the presence of other ocular abnormalities were extracted and statistically analyzed in different subgroups. The search identified 1314 patients diagnosed with CC from a total of 136154 hospitalizations, which accounted for 2.39% of all the cataract in-patients and 1.06% of the total in-patients over the six-year study period. Of the identified CC patients, 9.2% had ≥ 2 hospitalizations due to the necessity of additional surgeries, with a total ratio of boys to girls of 1.75 ∶ 1. Based on a subgroup analysis according to age, patients 2-6 years old constituted the highest proportion (29.22%) of all hospitalized CC patients, and those 13-18 years old constituted the lowest proportion (13.47%) of the total number. The average age at surgery was 27.62 ± 23.36 months, but CC patients ≤ 6 years old (especially ≤ 6 months old) became increasingly prevalent throughout the 6-year study period. A total of 276 cases (20.93%) of CC were associated with one or more other ocular abnormalities, the highest incidence rates were observed for exotropia (6.24%), nystagmus (6.16%), and refractive error (3.65%). In conclusion, CC patients accounted for 2.39% of all cataract in-patients in a review of 6 years of hospitalization charts from ZOC. The age at the time of surgery decreased over the 6-year study period, which probably reflects the continuing improvement of public awareness of children's eye care in China.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology, Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Haotian
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology, Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Ye
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology, Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Jingjing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology, Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Xiaojian
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhong
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology, Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Zhaochuan
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology, Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Zhuoling
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology, Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Wan
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology, Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Lixia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology, Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Bo
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Qu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology, Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Xinyu
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology, Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Danying
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology, Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Jiao
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhan
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology, Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Hanfu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology, Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Zhirong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology, Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Geng
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology, Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Wu
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Xiang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology, Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Weirong
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology, Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Yizhi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002386:Cataract / Q000150:complications / Q000151:congenital* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D002387:Cataract Extraction / Q000706:statistics & numerical data / Q000639:trends; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005099:Exotropia / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D020417:Nystagmus, Congenital / Q000453:epidemiology; D015995:Prevalence; D012030:Refractive Errors / Q000453:epidemiology