Are routine preoperative medical tests needed with cataract surgery? Study of visual acuity outcome.

Purpose: The aim of this prospective randomized clinical trial was to investigate whether routine medical testing before cataract surgery reduced the rate of ocular surgical complications and to study its impact on visual acuity outcome.

Methods: The study was carried out in an academic medical center in Brazil, at State University of Campinas, between 10 February 2000 and 10 January 2001. The scheduled cataract operations were randomly assigned to one of two groups: 1) to be preceded by routine medical testing (the "routine-testing group") or 2) not to be preceded by routine medical testing (the "selective-testing group").