Abstract
Prevention of visual impairment due to congenital cataract is an international priority as part of VISION 2020 - The Right to Sight, the joint initiative of the World Health Organization and the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness. The present study is part of the Epidemiology and Safety (EPISAFE) collaborative program aiming at assessing the epidemiology and safety of interventions in ophthalmology. METHODS: All children who underwent cataract surgery before the age of 1 year in France between January 2010 and December 2012 were identified by using the Programme de Médicalisation des Systèmes d'Information. RESULTS: In 3 years, 532 children (699 eyes; 46.6% girls) had cataract surgery before the age of 1 year; 31.4% had bilateral surgery. During the first year of life, the incidence of cataract surgery was 2.15/10,000 births. The median (interquartile range) age at surgery was 3.5 (2.2-4.8) months for children with unilateral cataract and 4.0 (2.2-7.2) months for children with bilateral cataract. Of the 699 operated eyes, 76.49% received intraocular lens implantation during the cataract surgery. CONCLUSIONS: The incidence of congenital cataract surgery observed in France is close to that in the literature in the industrialized world, which is estimated at 1-3/10,000 births. The timing of surgery is critical for visual development. Surgery was performed younger in children with monocular cataracts than in those with bilateral cataracts.