European Journal of Molecular & Clinical Medicine

Background: Diabetes mellitus is a chronic, multi-system metabolic disorder which gives
rise to ernestful ocular complications. Cataract is believed to be the second most common
of these complications, next to diabetic retinopathy, and it poses special challenges to the
surgeon both in terms of management and post-operative outcomes. Materials and
methods: This was a comparative, prospective, interventional study to assess and compare
preoperative and postoperative central macular thickness at weeks 1 and 12 after
uncomplicated cataract surgery among 50 well-controlled diabetic subjects with no
evidence of diabetic retinopathy and 50 non-diabetic subjects, using Optical Coherence
Tomography (OCT).Results: Majority patients of the diabetic group (42%) belonged to the
age-group of 51 to 60 years, while the majority in the control group (36%) belonged to the
age-group of 61 to 70 years. 54% of the patients had duration of diabetes between 5 to 10
years, while 44% of the patients had duration of diabetes less than 5 years. Significant
increase in central macular thickness (CMT) from baseline was seen postoperatively at
weeks 1 and 12 in both the groups, but while making inter-group comparison, the changes
in macular thickness were not found to be significant. Also, the incidence of post-operative
complications was observed to be higher in the diabetic group in comparison to the control
group.Conclusion: Uncomplicated cataract surgery in diabetics with well-controlled
glycaemic profile and without any evidence of diabetic retinopathy yielded similar
outcomes as non-diabetics in terms of rise in post-operative macular thickness. However,
in terms of post-operative complications, diabetic group showed a slightly higher incidence.