The study, titled “Risk of Fractures Following Cataract Surgery in Medicare Beneficiaries“, was published in the August 1 issue of JAMA, the journal of the American Medication Association. It was led by Victoria L. Tseng, MD, of the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University in Providence, R.I.
Dr. Tseng and colleagues examined a 5 percent random sample of Medicare Part B beneficiaries with cataract who received and did not receive cataract surgery from 2002 through 2009. Analysis of the data indicated that cataract surgery was associated with a 16 percent decrease in the adjusted odds of hip fracture one year after the procedure.
“Cataract surgery may be associated with lower odds of subsequent fracture in patients aged 65 years and older in the U.S. Medicare population,” said the researchers, in the release. “Future prospective studies using standardized registries of patients with cataracts will help further elucidate the association between cataract surgery and fracture risk. Cataract surgery has already been demonstrated to be a cost-effective intervention for visual improvement, with an estimated cost per quality-adjusted life-year gained for cataract surgery in the first eye of $2,023 in the United States and $2,727 in the second eye. The results in this study suggest the need for further investigation of the additional potential benefit of cataract surgery as a cost-effective intervention to decrease the incidence of fractures in the elderly.”
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