Evaluation of the vitreolenticular interface with intraoperative OCT.

Purpose: To determine the prevalence of anterior vitreous detachment (AVD) in routine bag-in-the-lens (BIL) cataract cases and possibly to identify risk factors for its presence.

Setting: University Hospital of Antwerp, Belgium.

Design: Prospective cross-sectional study.

Methods: Patients having routine BIL cataract surgery were included. Patients with traumatic cataract, previous intraocular surgeries, YAG laser treatment, intravitreal injection, or medical conditions that might affect normal ophthalmologic anatomy were excluded. Several parameters were collected from the patients' records, and their surgical videos/photographs/optical coherence tomography were evaluated.

Results: 99 eyes of 99 patients were included. Detectable AVD was observed in 62 eyes (63%). AVD was not present in 37 eyes (37%). The difference in prevalence of AVD between men and women was not statistically significant ( P = .55, Pearson χ 2 test). The Mann-Whitney U test for axial length was not statistically significant ( P = .38). However, it was statistically significant for age ( P < .005). A logistic regression model to ascertain the effect of age on the likelihood that patients had AVD did reach statistical significance (χ 2 (1) = 8.246, P < .005).

Conclusions: The prevalence of AVD in a routine cataract population was 63%. Age was identified as a risk factor. This study model determined that the odds for AVD increase 5.3% with each year of patient age. These data allowed for better preoperative and postoperative assessment of complications. The BIL, by its mandatory primary posterior continuous curvilinear capsulorhexis, did not increase the risk for postoperative ocular complications in the posterior segment of the eye.