Cataract surgery may raise falling risk post-op

NEW YORK - Reuters

Contrary to some past research, a new study finds that elderly adults who have cataract surgery could face an increased risk of falls and fractures in the next year - at least if they have only one eye done.

The increase was seen mostly in patients age 80 and up, and researchers say it’s not clear what factors - related to the surgery or not - might explain the added risk.

A cataract is a clouding of the eye’s lens, usually caused when proteins in the lens condense into clumps with age. Some studies, but not all, have suggested that cataract removal curbs older adults’ risk of falls and bone breaks.

In the new study, researchers looked at records for more than 15,000 Australian adults who’d had a first-time cataract surgery.

Overall, 600 were hospitalized for a fall-related hip fracture or other injury - either during the year before or the year after the eye surgery. And the risk, it turned out, was greater in the year after.