A Descriptive Study of Intraoperative Complications in Manual Small Incision Cataract Surgery

Abstract

Background: Senile cataract is the most common cause of reversible blindness in India and other developing countries. It is one of the significant social problem. Though phacoemulsification has become a routine procedure for cataract extraction in most parts of the developed world, it is not always appropriate either for its cost or the density of cataract involved in developing nations like India. Small incision cataract surgery is commonly performed surgery in developing countries. This procedure is safe, effective to increase the surgical outcome, reduces surgical time, easier to maintain instrumentation and at the same time affordable. The present study is undertaken to study the intraoperative complications and how best these complications can be minimized and managed. Methods: A total of 50 cases were studied from October 2020-January 2021. It is a hospital based, descriptive cross sectional study. Results: Intraoperative complications occurred in 10 cases (20%). It included iris prolapse in 3 cases (6%), tunnel related complications in 3 cases which included premature entry in 2 cases (4%) and button holing in 1 case (2%), Descemet membrane detachment in 1 case (2%), intraoperative miosis in 1 case (2%), intraoperative hyphema in 1 case (2%), capsule related complications in 1 case (2%) and PC rent in one case (2%). Conclusion: Over all the intraoperative complications of manual small incision cataract surgery are less and the procedure is well suited in our country, where there is a large number of backlog of cataract cases.