Cataracts in adults: management

  • NICE guideline
  • NG77
  • Published: 

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May 2025 surveillance of cataracts in adults: management (NICE guideline NG77)

Context

NICE was tracking a UK audit by the Royal College of Ophthalmologists (RCOphth), which subsequently published and was assessed for potential impact on the section on intraocular lens selection, which triggered a surveillance review of this topic. Part way through the surveillance review NICE were subsequently contacted by the RCOphth directly who submitted further evidence and feedback in relation to this area and 4 additional topic areas: biometry formulas (recommendations 1.3.5 to 1.3.8); surgical timing and technique (recommendation 1.6.1); bilateral simultaneous cataract surgery (recommendations 1.6.2 to 1.6.4); and toric lenses (recommendation for research 1).

Methods

This surveillance review process consisted of:

  • Considering the UK audit by the RCOphth for its impact on the guideline.

  • A search for systematic review and randomised controlled trial (RCT) evidence related to different intraocular lens (IOL) designs and materials for preventing posterior capsule opacification (PCO) in cataract surgery.

  • Considering the additional evidence and intelligence submitted by the RCOphth across 5 topic areas.

  • Considering the guideline evidence base related to the 5 topic areas.

  • Examining related NICE guidance and quality standards.

  • Examining the NICE event tracker for relevant ongoing and published events.

  • Assessing all of the new evidence and intelligence against current recommendations across each of the 5 topic areas to determine whether or not to update sections of the guideline.

  • Contacting topic experts about bilateral simultaneous cataract surgery.

  • Consulting with stakeholders about bilateral simultaneous cataract surgery.

For further details about the process and the possible update decisions that are available, see ensuring that published guidelines are current and accurate in developing NICE guidelines: the manual.

Search and selection strategy

We searched for new RCT and systematic review evidence related to different lens designs and materials for preventing PCO in cataract surgery. We included systematic reviews published from the date of the last search (January 2017) and RCTs which had published from the systematic review cut-off dates (January 2020). We did not do additional searches across other topic areas as the evidence submitted was sufficient.

We searched the NICE guidance database and identified the following:

We identified the following UK guidance:

This page was last updated: