Incidence of Retinal Detachment Following Lens Surgery in Children and Young Adults with Non-Traumatic Ectopia Lentis

PURPOSE To determine the incidence of retinal detachment following lens surgery in children and young adults with non-traumatic ectopia lentis. SETTING Population-based claims data. DESIGN Population-based retrospective cohort study. METHODS A total of 210 patients (298 eyes) with non-traumatic ectopia lentis aged ≤ 30 years who had undergone lens surgery with or without intraocular lens (IOL) implantation and had ≥ 1 year of continuous enrollment after lens surgery were identified from the Optum deidentified Clinformatics Data Mart Database (2003-2019) and IBM® MarketScan® Databases (2007-2016). We assessed sex, age, etiology of ectopia lentis, IOL implantation and postoperative retinal detachment in both databases, separately. Univariate and multivariate analyses were conducted to identify the risk factors for postoperative retinal detachment. RESULTS IOL implantation was coupled with lens surgery in 151 (49.8%) eyes that underwent lens surgery for non-traumatic ectopia lentis. Median follow-up was 32 months in aphakic eyes and 29 months in pseudophakic eyes. Patients undergoing IOL implantation were older at the time of lens surgery (median age: no IOL, 6 years; IOL, 16 years; P < .001). Retinal detachment developed in 14 eyes (4.7%) (no IOL, 5 (3.4%); IOL, 9 (6.0%); P = .30). Older age was the baseline characteristic that correlated most closely with the risk of retinal detachment (P = .05). CONCLUSIONS The rate of retinal detachment was similar with or without IOL implantation after lens surgery for non-traumatic ectopia lentis in children and young adults.