Abraham Ipe1, Sunilkumar T. P2, Rohith Skariah3
INTRODUCTION
Phacoemulsification is the method of choice in most of the western nations and tertiary care ophthalmology centres in India, while manual small incision cataract surgery (MSICS) is the surgical technique preferred by most of the ophthalmic surgeons working in smaller centres. Many studies have indicated that the MSICS technique is preferable for smaller centres, especially in developing countries, as the duration of surgery and requirement of equipment tends to be much smaller. This study was aimed at comparing the outcomes of MSICS and phacoemulsification surgeries carried out over a period of three months at a tertiary care hospital in South India.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Patients diagnosed to have age related cataract and undergoing surgery in this institution were included in the study. The choice of surgical intervention was based on the preference of the operating surgeon and choice of the patient. The patients were followed up at the end of one week on their review visit to the outpatient department of the hospital. The incidence of post-operative complications was enquired, apart from measurement of visual acuity and corneal diameters.
RESULTS
A total of 106 participants were included in the study. Eighty percent of the patients who underwent phacoemulsification had some improvement in vision, while 81.9% of the participants in the MSICS group showed improvement, (p-0.825), only one participant had a complication related to the surgery, and he belonged to the MSICS group. The changes in K1 (p-0.547) and K2 (p-0.698) corneal diameters during surgery was also not significantly different between the groups.
CONCLUSIONS
It was observed that MSICS and phacoemulsification procedures have similar outcomes when used at a tertiary care teaching hospital in South India. A large multicentric Randomised Control Trial (RCT) is warranted to compare the outcomes of the two surgical procedures and the cost-effectiveness of each, before concrete recommendations are formulated.
