Material and Methods: The medical records of patients who were followed between January 1995 and June 2013 with a diagnosis of AMD in Ankara University Medical Faculty Department of Ophthalmology were retrospectively reviewed. The stage of the disease (early, late), the visual acuity at baseline and last follow-up, the history of cataract surgery and the follow-up time of the patients who were included in the study were noted. The patients were divided into 2 groups in terms of having cataract surgery. The ratios for progression in both groups were calculated and compared each other with statistical methods.

Results: A total 151 eyes of 128 patients were included in this study. The mean age of the patients was 74.7 years. The mean followup time was 42.4 months. The group included the patients who underwent cataract surgery with early stage AMD had 54 eyes (group 1), the group without cataract surgery included 97 eyes (group 2). The visual acuity (LogMAR) was 0.209 ve 0.407 at initial and final follow-up in group 1, 0.195 ve 0.459 at initial and final follow-up in group 2. There was no difference between the groups in terms of visual acuity at baseline and the last examination (Mann-Whitney U, p1 and p2>0.05). During follow-up, the progression from early AMD to late AMD was seen in 16 of 54 eyes (29.6%) in group 1, 32 of 97 eyes (33%) in group-2. When the progression rates were compared in two groups, there was no statistically significant difference (Ki-kare, p>0.05).

Conclusions: In our study, it has been shown that previous cataract surgery did not effect the progression from early AMD to late AMD. The increase in visual acuity occurred after cataract surgery in the patients with early AMD and the levels of visual acuity gained by cataract surgery has remained in their high levels prior to surgery. Keywords : Cataract surgery, progression, age-related macular degeneration, visual acuity