From the American Academy of Ophthalmology

This analysis of data from the Infant Aphakia Treatment Study finds that contact lenses are safer and just as effective as IOLs in infants under seven months old. By age 5, lens reproliferation was 10 times more common in the IOL group, occurring in 40 percent of infants compared with 4 percent in the contact lens group. Due to this complication and others, 72 percent of the IOL group required one or more additional eye surgeries compared with 21 percent in the contact lens group. By age 5, nine children in the contact lens group developed minor eye infections that cleared up with antibiotic drops. Three infants in the contact lens group later opted for IOLs because the families had difficulty with daily maintenance. JAMA Ophthalmology, online first March 6, 2014