ABSTRACT
Background: Cataract blindness is a public health problem of major proportions in developing countries. Intra capsular cataract extraction with aphakic spectacles has been the standard surgical technique for restoring sight. Cataracts, the world's leading cause of blindness, are an enormous public health problem in both developing and industrialized countries. Objective: To study clinical profile of patients with cataract. Methods: After applying inclusion and exclusion criteria as well as after ethical consideration only patients having cataract were included in the study. In this way, it was possible to include the 1000 patients over a period of two years. Present study was hospital based cross sectional study. A pre tested, semi structured questionnaire was used to collect the data. Complete detailed history was taken as per the questionnaire. Thorough clinical examination was carried out. The collected data was entered in Microsoft Excel Sheet and analyzed with the help of proportions. Results: The prevalence of cataract was highest in the age group of 51-60 years i.e. 45.1%. The most common prevalent type of cataract was found to be mature cataract in 50.5% of cases followed by hyper-mature cataract in 34.7% of cases. The overall incidence of capsular rupture was 4.7%. Highest incidence of capsular rupture was seen in complicated cataract followed by intumescent cataract. Incidence of vitreous loss was most commonly present in intumescent cataract followed by complicated cataract. 51% of patients recovered to normal vision of 6/6. 41.2% of patients had corrected vision from 6/60 to 6/18. Conclusion: The prevalence of cataract is common above 50 years of age. The patients reporting to the hospital for the complaint of loss vision commonly have mature or hyper-mature cataract. Complications are less in the mature and hyper-mature type of cataract.