Purpose: To report a series of patients with uveitis and cataract who had undergone cataract extraction with posterior chamber intraocular lens implantation and who subsequently had the intraocular lens removed because of progressive intraocular damage from inflammation.
Methods: Review of the records of 19 patients after removal of a posterior chamber intraocular lens. The decision to perform surgery was based on standard criteria after evaluation at a single uveitis referral center.
Results: The complications leading to intraocular lens removal were perilental membrane (eight eyes), chronic low-grade inflammation not responding to anti-inflammatory treatment (eight eyes), and cyclitic membrane resulting in hypotony and maculopathy (three eyes). After intraocular lens removal the inflammation subsided and the visual acuity improved or stabilized in 14 of the 19 eyes. The causes of further reduction in the visual acuity of the other five patients were macular edema (two patients), maculopathy resulting from hypotony (one patient), retinal detachment (one patient), and vitreous hemorrhage (one patient).
Conclusions: Intraocular lens implantation can form part of a reasonable plan for visual rehabilitation of patients with uveitic cataract, but inclusion of an intraocular lens in the plan is not always in the overall long-term best interest of the patient. Intraocular lens removal may salvage useful vision for patients who continue to exhibit complications secondary to uveitis after cataract extraction and intraocular lens implantation, provided the intraocular lens is removed before irreparable damage has been done to macula or optic nerve.