"The Visual Outcomes Of Traumatic Cataract In Children In Pakistan"

Background and objective:Traumatic cataract is one of the most common causes of uni-ocular blindness. In this prospective study "The visual outcomes of traumatic cataract in children in Pakistan" we studied the clinical outcome, management and postoperative complications. We analyzed the visual prognosis after traumatic cataract extraction in these patients with intraocular lens implantation.Methods:All thirty consecutive cases of age12and younger than12, who had traumatic cataract, are included in this study. They underwent surgery between Nov2010and March2012. The cases were prospected and evaluated. This study was conducted at Saira Miraj Hospital Lahore Pakistan, which is a private hospital. This hospital is located in outskirts of the city and majority of its patients belong to the lower socio-economic class. The study group compromised of30cases of traumatic cataract out of which21cases (70%) were males and9cases (30%) were females. Most of the injuries23(77%) were caused by wire, glass and cutting instruments. All cases had traumatic cataract. Corneal injuries16(55.3%) and iris related problem9(30%) were the most commonly associated findings. Irrigation Aspiration with intraocular lens implantation was performed in these cases. The entire patients were worked up according to the protocol. The follow up period was one year long.Results:Visual acuity improved from Perception of light pre-operatively to6/18, hand movement in two cases, counting fingers in one case.6/60to6/36in3cases,6/24to6/18in16cases.6/12to6/9in4cases and6/6in2cases. Overall the vision improved in82.97%of the cases postoperatively. Conclusions:Irrigation Aspiration with intraocular lens implantation provides satisfactory visual results in traumatic cataract in children. Although we know that Phacoemulsification is the most commonly performed cataract procedure in the developed world. However, the high cost of a phacoemulsification machine and of the associated disposable equipment means that manual small incision cataract surgery with implantation of posterior chamber intraocular lens (IOL) remains the most commonly performed procedure in developing countries.The main cause for impaired vision was corneal scarring, astigmatism, retinal detachment and Amblyopia. PCO a major post-operative complication in our study, which should be further treated.