Clinical and epidemiological characterization of patients of the municipality of Puerto Padre, who underwent cataract surgery

Abstract

Background: cataract is the most frequent cause of preventable blindness in the municipality of Puerto Padre and in the country. Its treatment is surgical.Objective: to characterize the clinical and epidemiological variables in patients operated on for cataract at “Guillermo Domínguez” Hospital of the municipality of Puerto Padre, Las Tunas, from January 2005 to December 2015.Methods: a descriptive, retrospective and cross-sectional study was carried out with the patients treated at the department of ophthalmology of the hospital herein mentioned, who underwent surgery, with extracapsular cataract extraction (ECCE) and intraocular lens (IOL) implantation. The sample was made up of 2063 patients of the municipality who had surgical treatment with this technique, in the period of time already indicated.Results: the 60 and over age group was the most represented one, without an evident predominance of sex. The most frequent systemic disease was diabetes mellitus. The complications were infrequent and the one mostly presented was the posterior capsule rupture. Improved visual acuity of more than 4 lines on the Snellen scale was achieved.Conclusions: the clinical and epidemiological variables were characterized in the patients operated on for cataract who were included in this study.

Keywords

• cataract
• general surgery
• lens, crystalline