United States: Eye cataracts, an age-related sickness, may be cured to give these old people good vision and thus reduce their fall risk outcomes, which are at times lethal – the study proves.
Those who underwent the operation were 40% less likely to experience bone fractures and brain hemorrhages related to falling than those with cataracts but no surgery, said the authors, as reported by HealthDay.
Cataract Surgery Reduces Fall-Related Risks
The benefits were even greater than expected, Caitlin Hackl, lead author of the study and medical student researcher at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston.
“The consistency of this association across multiple common age-related fragility fractures, even after controlling for osteoporosis, was surprising,” Hackl said.
Her team reported the data on Saturday at the American Academy of Ophthalmology annual meeting in Chicago.
Study Analyzed Data
Hackl’s team had access to a U.S. national database, therefore checking if the patient had a history of falls among more than 2 million cataract surgery patients.
The patients were seperated into two groups: Patients who received the cataract surgery within the first ten years after the diagnosis of cataracts and those who did not.
The Texas researchers exercised caution to ensure that some characteristics, such as osteoporosis, diabetes, low vision, blindness, and retinal disorders, were matched between the two groups.
The findings established that incidences of serious head injury that caused bleeding were comparatively lower among those patients who underwent surgery to remove the cataract than those who did not.
Significant Reduction in Brain Hemorrhage
Patients who received the vision-restoring operation suffered 24% less epidural hemorrhage, which is often associated with a fall, as compared to those patients with cataracts who did not, according to the researchers.
Those who underwent cataract surgery were also 12% less likely to develop traumatic subdural hemorrhages, which is a form of bleeding near the brain that results from head injury in those who did not undergo the surgery.
Rates of bone fractures also declined: Pain sufferers who were treated with cataract surgery had between 5% to 11% lower chances of falling and developing fragility fractures within the wrist, arm, or ankle, as revealed by the data. These fractures are most often the result of a fall or some kind of traumatic injury, but there are other possibilities.
Broader Health Impacts
As pointed out by Hackl, the results should inspire individuals thinking about going through a cataract surgery to proceed with the procedure, as reported by HealthDay.
“We hope to shed light on the potential broader benefits of cataract surgery in reducing trauma-related morbidity [illness] and mortality and empower patients to make informed choices about their care,” Hackl said in a meeting news release.