Clinical-ophthalmological profile of patients undergoing cataract surgery following their identification in screening eye camps

ABSTRACT

Background: Senile cataract constitutes about 50–70% of preventable blindness in the year 2000 in India. >3/4th of Indian populations live in rural areas which are away from medical facilities. Conducting of outreach camps forms an integral part in decreasing the visual morbidity due to cataract, etc., in rural areas, thus the unrecognized rural and poor population is benefited. Objective: The objective of this study was to see demographic and clinical-ophthalmological profile of patients undergoing cataract surgery. Materials and Methods: The present cross-sectional observational study which was conducted in a tertiary care hospital involved 72 cataract patients who were assigned to undergo extra capsular cataract extraction surgery (SICS with PC-IOL) following their identification in various screening eye camps of Jammu province. Results: The maximum prevalence was seen in the age group of >60 years, i.e., 76.39%. Males outnumbered females, i.e., 63.89%. Housewives comprised 36.11% followed by farmers who were 34.72%. About 37.5% among studied subjects were smokers and 38.89% were hypertensives while 19.44% had blood sugar level above normal value. Mature cataract was the most common seen in 72.22%. Majority of the patients, i.e., 59.72% had visual acuity of <1/60. Conclusion: Increasing age, housewives, and smoking were the most important risk factors, whereas mature type of cataract was more commonly seen in camp patients.