Materials and Methods: Medical records of 46 monocular patients who had phacoemulsification and intraocular lens implantation between January 2001 and January 2005 were reviewed. The data analyzed for each patient included demographic information, additional surgery, pre- and postoperative visual acuity, reason for poor vision in the unoperated eye, co-morbidities in the operated eye, intraoperative and postoperative complications.

Results: Mean age of patients was 71.4 years (31-85 years), and mean follow-up was 16 weeks (4-78 weeks). Nine patients (19.6%) were monocular due to previous ocular surgeries. Thirty seven patients (80.4%) were monocular because of medical eye conditions. Topical anesthesia was used 76.1% of patients. Posterior capsule tear did not occurred in any case. Three-piece hydrophobic acrylic IOLs were implanted in the bag in all patients. The most frequent complication was visually significant posterior capsule opacification in 6 eyes. Postoperative endophthalmitis developed in 1 patient on the 3rd postoperative week. Ocular co-morbidities were present in 71.7% (33) of eyes having surgery. Postoperatively fourty one of cases (89.1%) had an increase in visual acuity.

Conclusion: Although our results are satisfactory, cataract surgery in monocular patients are likely to have some ocular co-morbidities and risks both for the patient and the surgeon, some of which may limit the final visual acuity. Naturally, surgeon skill and experience are essential for surgical outcomes as well as obeying the surgical principles, asepsis and antisepsis. Keywords : Monocularity, cataract, phacoemulsification