Visual acuity in patients having foldable and non-foldable intra-ocular lens for cataract surgery.

BACKGROUND: Intra-ocular lens (IOLs) is the most commonly use organ substitute worldwide. Question of different type of IOLs which would offer different post operative visual acuity (VA) has been asked. OBJECTIVES: To compare the pre-operative and post operative visual acuity (VA) of cataract patients operated-patient and the use of non foldable and foldable IOLs in different age groups. METHOD: Retrospective study of post operative VA of cataract patients-operated from Priest, Lerdsin Hospital in Bangkok and Lampang Hospital in northern part of Thailand. Methods to operate and type of IOLs implantation were recorded. The cases with pre-operative and intra-operative complications were excluded. RESULTS: Post operative VA of cataract patients was better than pre-operation VA with statistically significant at p-value less than 0.05 and the results persisted for every age group. With phacoemulsification (PE) techniques, non-foldable IOLs offered better post operative VA than foldable IOLs in every age group except in age group of less than 40 and age group over 59 that showed statistically significant different at p-value less than 0.05. CONCLUSION: Due to the nature of retrospective study, the cause of poor post operative VA was due to astigmatism which the pre-operative astigmatism were not recorded to fulfill complete analysis.

Prevalence of diabetic retinopathy in relation to duration of diabetes mellitus in community hospitals of Lampang.

Three thousand and forty nine patients diagnosed with diabetes mellitus were examined in 13 community (district) hospitals in Lampang from January to December 2002. Complete eye examination with standard protocol was used to determine the prevalence and severity of diabetic retinopathy. The prevalence of the background or non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy (BDR or NPDR) was 18.9% and proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR) was 3% in all age groups. For the relationship of the duration of diabetes, it showed that the longer the duration of diabetes the higher the prevalence of diabetic retinopathy. In BDR or NPDR, the retinopathy varied from 13.11 to 22.91% in persons having diabetes for less than 10 years and up to 42.86% in those with diabetes for up to 20 years. In the PDR group, the prevalence was 2.15 to 2.42% in persons with diabetes for less than 10 years and up to 10.20% for those with diabetes for up to 20 years. The severity of retinopathy was found to be not only related to a longer duration of diabetes but also related to higher glycosylated hemoglobin levels, higher systolic blood pressure and the presence of proteinuria.