Visual Outcome after Cataract Surgery Section in Rural Hospital of Wardha District: A Prospective Study

Abstract

Introduction: The most common cause of blindness is cataract, affecting over 17 million people worldwide. Cataract surgery is the most common surgical procedure done in the developed world. Aim: To study visual outcome of patients who underwent cataract surgery. Materials and Methods: It was a prospective study carried out in the Department of Ophthalmology for 1 year and total of 1750 patients with cataract underwent cataract surgery and the pre-operative and post-operative visual acuity was assessed. By using convenient random sampling, all patient who are admitted in the Department of Ophthalmology for cataract extraction surgery were included in this study. Statistical analysis was done by using descriptive and inferential statistics using Chisquare test. Software used was SPSS 17.0 and Graph Pad 6.0 and p<0.05 was considered as level of significance. Results: Total 1750 cases were enrolled and the maximum number of cases were in the age group of 51-60 years (54.86%) whereas the least cases were found in 41-50 years of age group, Out of 1750 cases, 64.28% were males and 35.72% were females. Pre-operative uncorrected visual acuity (UCVA) was <6/60 in maximum 630 cases (36%) cases, Out of 1750 cases surgeries was performed with phacoemulsification in 1120 (64%) cases and Small Incision Cataract surgery (SICS) in 945 (54%) cases, post-operative Best corrected visual acuity was 6/24-6/9 in maximum 1479 (84.51%) cases. Conclusion: The present study identified the factors that affect the visual outcomes such as surgical procedure, preoperative Visual acuity, post-operative visual acuity. The phacoemulsification can be utilised due to evidence for better cataract surgery outcomes when compared to SICS. There is a need for community-based approach to increase awareness of eye health which is very important.

Keywords

• eye lens
• phacoemulsification
• visual acuity