Corneal curvature and axial length values in children with congenital/infantile cataract in the first 42 months of life.

PURPOSE: To evaluate corneal curvature (K(m)) and axial length (AL) of eyes of term-born children aged <3.5 years with uncomplicated congenital cataract and provide age-specific estimates.

METHODS: This was a retrospective review of patients undergoing cataract extraction from January 1994 to December 2006. Exclusion criteria were preterm birth, microphthalmia, microcornea, megalocornea, glaucoma, traumatic or complicated cataract, retinal disease. Keratometric readings were taken with an autokeratometer before surgery. Linear regression with the logarithm of the patient's age as an independent variable was used to model the relationship between the patient's age and biometric and keratometric readings.

RESULTS: All unilateral cataractous eyes (n = 69) and a randomly selected eye in bilateral cases (n = 111) were included in the analysis, for a total of 180 eyes. Mean age was 15.5 +/- 11.8 months; mean AL, 20.03 +/- 2.25 mm; mean K(m), 45.07 +/- 3.00 D. K(m) was significantly greater and AL shorter in younger children (P < 0.001). No differences according to sex were found. As a group, eyes from unilateral cataract had significantly longer AL than those from bilateral cases (P = 0.029). In a small subgroup of unilateral cataract patients for which readings from the clear lens eye were available (n = 39), K(m) of the affected eye was significantly greater than that of the fellow healthy eye (P = 0.007).

CONCLUSIONS: In the first 42 months of age, K(m) and AL are significantly different according to age. These findings have implications for the calculation of intraocular lens power in children.