Life quality assessment of patients after phacoemulsification or extracapsular cataract extraction

Purpose: To study the quality of life, treatment outcomes, and satisfaction in patients who have undergone cataract surgery Methods: This comparative case series study was conducted at the Ophthalmology Service of the Bettina Ferro de Souza University Hospital, Belém, Pará, Brazil. Totally, 60 patients with cataract were included; 50% underwent conventional extracapsular cataract extraction (ECEE) and 50% underwent cataract extraction by phacoemulsification (PHACO). Patients were interviewed using the Visual Function 14 (VF-14) questionnaire to determine the quality of life before and 30 days after surgery. The results of ophthalmological examination were recorded in the patients' files and were available throughout this study. One-way ANOVA, Tukey's post-hoc comparison, and the sign test were used for statistical analyses. Results: The mean VF-14 satisfaction index was 38.0 and 89.4 before and after surgery, respectively, for the ECEE group and 47.0 and 94.1, respectively, for the PHACO group. The improvement in patient quality of life after surgery was significant in both groups (p<0.0001), with a similar amount of improvement in both groups. Conclusions: The observed improvement in quality of life was significant (p<0.0001) and directly related to patient satisfaction with surgical outcomes, which was also significant (p<0.0001) as assessed using the VF-14. Satisfaction and quality of life are individual factors; consequently, patient responses to questions regarding improvements in the ability to perform each activity are subjective and depend uniquely on individual perception.