Question:
What percentage of patients have to have the YAG done after they have
had cataracts removed and it clouds up again ?
Answer:
Depends upon what statistics you look at. Most younger patients (50 and
younger) will live long enough to need a YAG laser. My experience is that
opacification of the posterior capsule when it does occur happens within the
first five years after surgery. I haven't seen a great trend in less YAGs
as some have reported, however this is simply anecdotal. We do about 25
cataract cases per month, and we see hundreds of post-op patients each
month.
The lack of slit-lamp data to verify the photographic diagnosis of posterior
subcapsular cataract is puzzling. With a slit lamp, even minute posterior
subcapsular cataracts can be seen, and examiners can easily distinguish
between true cataract and opacities that mimic it (false positives) in the
retroillumination image -- such as Mittendorf's dots (small, dense opacities
behind the capsule of the posterior lens), posterior cortical opacities, and
perhaps even anterior cortical or anterior subcapsular cataracts.
Nonetheless, false positives are equally likely in older people with and
without these cataracts, so they may not affect the overall difference in
prevalence between the groups.
