What are the complications of congenital cataracts?

Congenital cataract refers to an eye disease that exists from birth and is more common in children. Since patients with congenital cataracts have cloudy lenses, their vision will be affected. In addition, congenital cataracts have some complications, such as congenital microphthalmos, strabismus, nystagmus, etc. Once these complications are found in the child's eyes, timely treatment must be provided.

1. Complications of congenital cataracts: congenital microphthalmia.

For patients with congenital cataract and congenital microphthalmia, it is impossible to achieve ideal visual recovery. Even after cataract surgery, visual recovery is limited. The presence of congenital microphthalmia has nothing to do with the type of congenital cataract. It may be caused by lens opacity during abnormal lens development, which changes the size of the eyeball and is mostly related to genetics. In addition to small eyeballs, certain intraocular tissues (such as iris and choroid) may also be missing. Congenital cataract combined with microphthalmia can also be seen in certain systemic diseases, such as Norrie's disease, Gruber's disease and certain chromosomal aberration syndromes.

2. Congenital cataract complications: strabismus.

More than 1/2 of patients with unilateral cataract and less than 1/2 of patients with binocular cataract have strabismus. Due to the opacity of the lens of one eye or the change of refractive power, the vision decreases; or the different opacities of the lens of both eyes cause unbalanced vision of both eyes, which destroys the fusion mechanism and gradually causes strabismus. In addition, the eyes affected by congenital cataracts may have certain anatomical abnormalities (such as microphthalmos) and certain intraocular diseases, which can also lead to the occurrence of strabismus and gradually worsen. Certain systemic diseases may cause congenital cataracts combined with strabismus, such as Lowe's syndrome, Stickler's syndrome, neonatal hemolytic disease and certain chromosomal abnormality syndromes.

3. Complications of congenital cataracts: nystagmus.

Nystagmus is caused by congenital cataracts, which affects vision and makes it impossible to focus, resulting in swinging or searching nystagmus, also known as secondary nystagmus. It can be reduced or disappear after cataract surgery. If nystagmus cannot be eliminated after surgery, it will inevitably affect the recovery of vision. Congenital cataracts combined with nystagmus can also be seen in certain systemic diseases, such as dysplasia of the lower jaw, deletion of the long arm of chromosome 21, and Marinesco-Sjgren syndrome.