A CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY ON VISUAL OUTCOME AFTER CATARACT SURGERY IN NORTHERN INDIA: AN INDIAN PERSPECTIVE

Purpose: The main purpose of this study is to determine the visual outcomes and satisfaction among the old age patients after cataract surgery in Northern India. Methodology: It was a cross sectional study conducted to estimate the visual outcomes after cataract surgery. It includes 9023 (mean age: 55±2.51) participants (Male-4848 & Female-4175). The participants underwent a comprehensive eye examination and information on the patient’s lifestyle, chief complaints, socioeconomic status, occupations; systemic diseases were collected using a self-structured questionnaire. The included data were analyzed to explore the visual outcomes and patient’s satisfaction using the Pearson Chi-square test for each factor through SPSS version 21. Results: Out of 9023 individuals enrolled in the study, 6370 were diagnosed having cataract (a vast majority of patients had cortical cataract (66.2%), followed by nuclear (27.1%) and a small number (6.6%) of posterior subcapsular cataract) and 3372 were found fit for cataract surgery. However only 3156 patients underwent surgery. A vast majority of the patients (80.8%) with the best correction achieved a good visual outcome, followed by a borderline visual outcome (12.9%). Poor visual outcome was seen only in 6.4% cases. All parameters were found to be statistically significant with the Pearson Chi-square test. A p-value of <0.05 was considered as significant. Conclusion: WHO criteria fulfilled the visual outcome after cataract surgery in this study. In this study, age, surgical methods, ocular co-morbidities, pre and post-operative complications were associated with a poor visual outcome i.e. 6.4%. KEYWORDS: Visual Outcome, Cataract Surgery, Eye-Care, Optometry, Public Health