Abstract

In a retrospective study, 8510 outreach camp patients had undergone cataract surgeries with posterior chamber intraocular lens implantation, iris claw and scleral fixated IOL under topical and peribulbar anaesthesia over a period of 18 months.
9028 eyes underwent cataract extraction with IOL implantation. Small incision cataract surgery (SICS) was the commonest method (67%) used. The most common first post-operative day complication was striate keratitis (37%) and corneal edema (28%). The complications were based on OCTET definitions, and showed that 35 % had Grade I and 6.4 % had Grade II complications. 91 % of the eyes had a 4 week-post-operative best corrected visual acuity of 6/18.
High quality cataract surgery with a low rate of intra-operative complications and good visual outcome can be attained in camp patients operated at tertiary rural centres, thus justifying more similar screening camps to clear the debt of preventable blindness due to cataract.