Sir,

We appreciate the comments made by Chan and Au Eong.

The methodology and results of their study compare well with ours. Both these studies are audit-based retrospective studies looking at the visual outcome of patients who underwent complicated cataract surgery, with vitreous loss requiring anterior vitrectomy. Our study excluded patients undergoing extracapsular cataract extraction and only included patients having phacoemulsification cataract surgery.

An acceptable visual outcome defined as the best-corrected acuity (BCVA) of 6/12 or better is identical in both studies. Our study found that 86% patients without pre-existing ocular pathology requiring anterior vitrectomy achieved this level of vision. This compares well with Chan and Au Eong's findings of 87%. However, we are unable to comment on the group of patients who had vitreous loss without the need for anterior vitrectomy as our study included patients requiring an anterior vitrectomy.

The results of the BCVA obtained in our study group ranged from 2 to 24 weeks postoperatively with a mean of 11.8 weeks. The aim of our study was to ascertain the best achievable visual outcome and therefore it is impossible to extrapolate this information to a specific time frame. Thus, we are unable to comment on the short-term visual outcome, but agree that complicated cataract surgery poses a risk to a poorer visual outcome with a high incidence of post-operative cystoid macular oedema as shown in our study.

We look forward to reading Chan and Au Eong's paper in depth and are most reassured with the similarities in our findings.