Potential acuity meter accuracy in cataract patients.

PURPOSE: To determine potential acuity meter (PAM) accuracy in patients with cataract as the only ocular disease. SETTING: Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre, Brazil. METHODS: This prospective study comprised 74 eyes with cataract. Patients with other ocular pathology diagnosed before or after surgery, as well as those with complicated surgeries, were excluded. All patients had PAM evaluation before surgery; these results were compared to the final postoperative visual acuity. Patients were divided into 4 cataract groups based on the Lens Opacity Classification System II: Group 1, early cataracts (nuclear opalescence [NO] 1 and/or posterior subcapsular cataracts [P] 1 and/or cortical opacity [C] < 2); Group 2, definite cataracts (NO2 and/or C2, with or without P1); Group 3, posterior cataracts (P2 or P3); Group 4, mature cataracts (N3 and/or C > or = 3, with or without P1). The PAM result was considered accurate if it was within 2 lines of the postoperative best spectacle-corrected visual acuity (BSCVA) 3 months after surgery. RESULTS: All patients had a BSCVA of 20/20. Accuracy of the PAM was 58.3% in Group 1, 50.0% in Group 2, 27.8% in Group 3, and 6.7% in Group 4 (P =.000 017). Patient age did not influence the results. CONCLUSIONS: The PAM may be used as a complementary tool in evaluating early and nondense cataracts; however, patients should not be excluded as candidates for cataract surgery based solely on PAM results.

Intraocular lens implantation in Terrien's marginal corneal degeneration.

A patient with Terrien's corneal marginal degeneration and a previous trabeculectomy had planned extracapsular cataract extraction with intraocular lens implantation. A corneal incision was made with a diamond blade on the degeneration furrow superiorly and was closed with a 10-0 nylon double-running suture with keratoscopic control.

Casuistica dos erros de refracao no Hospital de Clinicas de Porto Alegre. / Case studies of refractive errors at the Hospital de Clinicas de Porto Alegre

Foi realizado um estudo analitico em 1.500 pacientes portadores de erros de refracao, que buscaram assistencia medica no Ambulatorio de Oftalmologia do Hospital de Porto Alegre, no periodo de janeiro a agosto de 1982, com a finalidade de verificar a frequencia e grau dos mesmos, bem como sua distribuicao por sexo e idade. Os autores observaram que: 1) o defeito refracional mais frequente foi a hipermetropia; 2) todas as ametropias apresentaram maior frequencia entre 0,25 e 1,00 dioptrias; 3) houve predominancia do sexo feminino praticamente em todas as ametropias e faixas etarias e 4) os defeitos miopicos apresentaram maior frequencia em pacientes com idade inferior a 40 anos, ao contrario dos hipermetropicos