ABSTRACT Purpose:

This prospective, randomized, unmasked, clinical trial aimed to report the visual outcomes of cataract surgery on both eyes versus cataract surgery on one eye in Brazilian patients.

Methods:

This study included patients with bilateral cataracts and binocular visual acuity worse than or equal to 0.3 logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution. The patients were randomly assigned to undergo surgery on one (Control Group) or both eyes (one eye at a time; Intervention Group). Postoperatively, self-reported visual function using Catquest-9SF (primary outcome measure), binocular visual acuity, stereopsis, and ocular dominance (secondary outcome measures) were compared.

Results:

A total of 151 patients (77 and 148 eyes in the Control and Intervention Groups, respectively) completed the follow-up. Patients who underwent surgery on both eyes exhibited significantly better self-reported visual function (p=0.036) and stereopsis (p=0.026) than those who underwent surgery on one eye. Binocular visual acuity and ocular dominance did not affect the group comparisons.

Conclusions:

Surgery on both eyes resulted in significantly better self-reported visual function and stereopsis than surgery on one eye.