Cataract surgery may not increase risk of progressive age-related macular degeneration, study suggests.

MedPage Today (2/2, Bankhead) reported that "cataract surgery does not increase the risk of progressive age-related macular degeneration," according to a study published online in the journal Ophthalmology. Investigators "reviewed data from the Age-Related Eye Disease Study (AREDS), which involved 4,577 patients (8,050 eyes) who were followed every six-months for as long as 11 years." All "participants were ages 55 to 80 at enrollment and had best-corrected visual acute of 20/32 or better in at least one eye." The researchers "found that 1,167 patients had cataract surgery during follow-up." According to the investigators, "the frequency of neovascular age-related macular degeneration, geographic atrophy, and central geographic atrophy did not differ between patients who had cataract surgery and those who did not."