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Background: To analyze the results of court rulings about medical litigations related to cataract surgery in Korea., Methods: We collected 50 anonymized judgements regarding cataract surgery between 2000 and 2016 and analyzed the reasons for the medical litigations, the court rulings, the reasons for compensation, and the amount claimed and finally awarded., Results: Forty-eight litigations (96%) resulted from errors in treatment, and the reasons were as follows: endophthalmitis, dissatisfaction of visual outcome or ocular discomfort, bullous keratopathy or corneal opacity, retinal detachment, glaucoma or vitreous hemorrhage due to the progression of an underlying diabetic retinopathy, and others in order. Two litigations (4%) arose due to errors in diagnosis. Among the 50 final cases, 21 litigations (42%) were decided in favor of the plaintiff, and 29 litigations (58%) were decided against the plaintiff and dismissed. Ten cases awarded damages to the plaintiffs because of a violation of duty of care, and 11 cases awarded damages due to a violation of informed consent. When comparing cases with errors in diagnosis to cases with errors in treatment, there was no significant difference in the relative risk of a defendant's verdict ( P = 0.503). The total amount of awarded damages was KRW 439,124,496 (USD 399,204), and the average amount was KRW 20,910,690 (USD 19,010)., Conclusion: Nearly half of the cases were decided in favor of the plaintiff due to the violation of informed consent. This study's results will be helpful in understanding the results of medical litigations regarding cataract surgery and reducing future lawsuits., Competing Interests: Disclosure: The authors have no potential conflicts of interest to disclose.

Purpose: To assess the proportion of glaucomatous eyes based on the association between optic disc (OD) size and its clinical determinants in the resident population of Namil-myon, Central South Korea., Methods: Of the 1,532 participants in the Namil study, we included 1,410 Koreans (2,734 eyes) with legible fundus photographs in this study. Following the estimation of OD size on the photographs using Image J software, we corrected for image magnification. Associations between the clinical features, such as age, sex, axial length (AL), spherical equivalent (SE), and central corneal thickness, and the estimated OD size were assessed for individual eyes. After adjusting for the influencing factors, the proportion of glaucoma was compared among three categories of measured OD size (small, medium, and large OD groups)., Results: After adjusting for the potential confounders using a linear mixed model, age, sex, AL, and SE were correlated with the OD size estimates (P = 0.003, P = 0.029, P < 0.001, and P < 0.001, respectively). The percentage of glaucomatous eyes was 3.77 % in the small disc group, which was higher than in the other groups (P = 0.054). In particular, normal tension glaucoma (NTG) was statistically significantly more frequent in this group (odds ratio = 1.86, P = 0.042)., Conclusions: These results suggest that clinical features such as age, sex, AL, and SE might need to be considered for an accurate evaluation of the OD. In addition, in individuals with a small OD, the presence of NTG must be carefully investigated in the South Korea population.

Purpose: To evaluate subfoveal choroidal thickness (CT) in eyes with normal-tension glaucoma (NTG) in patients who were visualized by enhanced depth imaging optical coherence tomography., Methods: In this observational, comparative case series, subfoveal CT was measured with enhanced depth imaging optical coherence tomography in 35 eyes of normal individuals and 32 eyes of patients with NTG. Subfoveal CT in each eye was analyzed by measuring the vertical distance from Bruch membrane to the innermost sclera layer., Results: The mean subfoveal CT in the normal individual group and the NTG patient group were 300.0±52.7 and 289.5±100.4 µm, respectively. There was no difference in subfoveal CT in the 2 groups (P=0.60). The mean subfoveal CT in all subjects was significantly correlated negatively with age only (P=0.03)., Conclusions: The subfoveal CT does not differ between the eyes of the normal individual group and the eyes in the NTG patient group, suggesting that CT may not play a role in the pathogenesis of NTG.