Paediatric Cataract Surgery Registry

EuReCCa aims to capture practice trends for paediatric cataract surgery across Europe. Cheryl Guttman Krader reports

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Members of the steering group of the European Registry of Childhood Cataract (EuReCCa) are getting ready to launch the project, which aims to improve surgical outcomes in infants and children with cataract. “EuReCCa is designed to capture real-life practice for paediatric cataract surgery across Europe. Ultimately, we expect its findings will improve quality of life for children with cataract and their parents,” said Marie-José Tassignon MD, PhD. “We are now finalising our review of the data collection forms and expect that the registry will be accessible to ESCRS members as a sub-registry of the EUREQUO platform in April or May of 2021,” she told EuroTimes. Dr Tassignon, Emeritus Professor and Head, Department of Ophthalmology, University Hospital, Antwerp, Belgium, is serving as co-coordinator of the EuReCCa steering group with G Darius Hildebrand MD, President, European Paediatric Ophthalmological Society and Head, Paediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus, Oxford University Hospitals, Oxford, UK. Mats Lundström MD, PhD, Karlskrona, Sweden, is the group’s director on behalf of EUREQUO. The registry will collect systematic prospective data on visual outcome, refractive outcome, and complications. In the future, a form will be added to gather patient-reported outcomes. RESEARCH AIMS The specific research aims of EuReCCa are to characterise visual outcomes and identify associated predictive factors; improve understanding of emmetropisation in children with unilateral and bilateral cataract; establish recommendations for the optimal timing of surgery in children; define an updated childhood cataract grading system; and answer the question of whether IOL implantation is safe at any age and if aphakia is still an option in the current era. The data collected in EuReCCa will be analysed to identify risk factors for main surgical and postoperative complications and reasons for reoperations. By comparing outcomes associated with different approaches, EuReCCa will help to define standard surgical procedures.“Our hope is that using the collective data, we will be able to build the first multivariate risk model for paediatric cataract surgery that can be used to inform parents about surgical outcomes and guide ophthalmologists in their surgical planning,” Dr Tassignon said. “Through the reports generated by EuReCCa, participating centres and individual surgeons will also be able to compare their outcomes to the entire registry.” Some future improvements in the user-friendliness of the EuReCCa platform would be making it compatible with the participant’s electronic medical record, allowing Digital Imaging and Communication in Medicine (DICOM)-compatible uploading of surgical videos to improve cataract classification. EuReCCa is financially supported by the ESCRS. If any doctor wishes to register their interest they can visit registries.escrs.org.