A cataract is an opacifying process of the lens of the eye that causes disturbance of vision. The major risk factor for lens opacification is aging. Previous studies had focused on genetic factors, environmental influences, metabolic and biochemical changes in the crystalline lens (West and Valmadrid, 1995). It is a common disease in ophthalmology field. Etiology and treatment of cataract had been extensively studied in the past several dacades. Before 1960, cataract study was confined to etiology and pidemiology. Since microsurgery advanced after microscope developed, cataract research was began almost simultaneously after the demonstration of ocular microsurgery since 1970 (Shugar, 1997). More systemic study and review was developed since cataract surgery had advanced a lot over the years. ECCE was introduced in 1970 and many papers were explosively published. During the past two decades, the scientific output from medical institutions has been increasingly subjected to phacoemulsification which made it possible to establish vision after surgery. In these years, more sophisticated surgical skills were developed, and more documents were published in these years. In private clinic or hospital related to cataract re- search have expanded considerably and today encompasses many of
the important areas of cataract study. Later sections will describe the main features of cataract studies in these years. This part of the paper is not concerned to give full technical details of the studies, most of which are described in accompanying reference. Rather, it gives an account of the way the future trend in cataract study. In spite of significant expansion of literatures for cataract in ophthalmology, little is known about how future trends will be without gathering statistics. This information is of crucial importance, since researcher can have more direction to the future study. Besides, various academic study based on fund assistance needs more information to make more accurate decision. The purpose of the present study was to gain insight into the trends of various contributing factors to the advancement of cataract-related research in the subject categories of ophthalmology. Data from SCI were analyzed to determine the quantitative impacts of cataractrelated research, based on year of publication, authorship, international collaborations, and keyword trends.
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