Visual Outcome among Patients Undergone Manual Small Incision Cataract Surgery Following their Identification in Screening Eye Camp in Jammu Province.

Abstract

Introduction: One of the documented leading cause of blindness in India is cataract as many patients with cataract do not have access to hospitals and surgery and to avoid blindness due to cataract, the only remedy is to perform hospital based cataract surgery on a large scale. There is an increase in a number of cataract patients due to improved quality of life, health indices and increased life expectancy. Study aimed to see the visual outcome and complications among patients undergone manual SICS with PC-IOL implantation. Material and Methods: The present prospective observational study was conducted on 72 patients who were selected in various screening eye camps to undergo cataract extraction surgery by manual small incision cataract surgery technique with posterior chamber IOL implantation (MSICS with PC-IOL). Results: Total of 72 eyes of patients who underwent manual small incision cataract surgery were studied. Best corrected preoperative visual acuity of ≥ 6/60 was found in 13 patients while postoperatively on day1 total of 60 patients had visual acuity of ≥ 6/60. The final 6th week postoperative best corrected visual acuity of 6/12-6/9 was found in 65 patients. Iris prolapse was seen in 3 patients followed by posterior capsule rent which was seen in 2 patients. Mild postoperative uveitis was seen in 20 followed by striate keratopathy in 8 patients while hyphaema was seen in 2 patients. Conclusion: MSICS is a safe and effective procedure, due to its low rates of intraoperative and postoperative complications which are easily treatable. Visual acuity is only one measure of the functional success of cataract surgery and the good postoperative visual outcomes achieved by our patients further adds on to its benefits as a good surgical technique. MSICS can be performed as procedure of choice for large volume cataract surgeries.