Investigation of Cataract Hardness Within the Scope of Surgical Success and Complication

Purpose: Cataract is a disease that affects the quality of vision at almost every stage of life. Traumatic cataract cases are also frequently encountered in addition to cataract cases that develop due to age and genetic factors. In terms of surgery, cataract cases can be divided into hard and soft. How does the hard or soft cataract affect the surgical success during phacoemulsification used for the treatment of cataract? Is cataract classification related to complications? What is the relationship between phaco time and cataract classes? In this study, answers to the above questions were sought. Materials and methods A total of 287 eyes of 287 patients who met the conditions for cataract surgery at the Van Training and Research Hospital Eye Clinic between 2020 and 2022 were included in the study. Ethics committee approval was also obtained from the ethics committee of the same hospital. The research design can be described as correlational research. Linear relationships between two or more variables will be tested. Frequency analysis, t test, correlation analysis and regression analysis were applied by means of SPSS (ver. 20) package program. Results According to the results of this study, a significant relationship was found between cataract hardness and phaco time. The greater the hardness of the cataract, the longer the phaco period. The prolongation of the phaco period in surgery increases the risk of complications. Contrary to the common results in the literature, posterior capsule rupture complications were more common in soft cataracts in this study. When visual acuity was compared, postoperative visual acuity did not differ between hard and soft cataracts. However, a significant difference was found in the evaluation of the groups within themselves before and after surgery. Conclusion Rupture of the posterior capsule is more common in soft cataracts. There is no difference between soft and hard cataracts in terms of visual acuity. In addition, there was no difference between hard and soft cataracts in terms of intraocular pressure.