Pediatric Cataract Service

Cataracts in babies and young children are treated urgently because they can have a lasting effect on vision development. As the cloudy lens blocks light from getting into the eye, the brain gets no visual experience through that eye at a time when the eye and brain are working together to learn to see. As a result, a baby or child with an untreated cataract could be slowly going blind, and if surgery is delayed, it might be too late to help.

Although the problem is rare, occurring in 0.4 percent of all children, the Pediatric Cataract Service at Children's Hospital Boston cares for some 50 babies and children each year, who are referred here from around the country.

• Routinely treat cataracts, and have removed cataracts in babies as young as 3 days old

• Use specialized tools and equipment including a supine YAG laser that allows children to be cradled in a horizontal position after being anesthetized.

• Use refined delicate lens implantation techniques and customized software to predict the growth of the eye and choose the best lens implant power for children. This avoids the need to have to change the lens later in life as the eye grows.

• Have successfully implanted intraocular lenses in babies as young as 6 months old.

• Are a mix of researchers and clinicians working side by side training fellows who come here from around the world. The result of this collaboration is improvement in the way cataracts and other eye conditions are treated in babies and children.

• Are part of a national multi-eye center study to determine whether intraocular lenses can be safely implanted in infants younger than 6 months old, with the goal of attaining normal vision throughout childhood and adulthood.