Sachala Bhoi1, Pallavi Ray2, Sanjukta Mahapatro3, Kasturi Mohapatra4, Chinmaya Mahapatra5
BACKGROUND
Traumatic cataract is one of the common sequelae following ocular injury. It is
one of the leading causes of preventable blindness. Ocular trauma leading to
traumatic cataract, if managed early gives good visual outcome. Associated ocular
structure involvement has much bearing on the management and prognosis of
traumatic cataract. We wanted to study the visual outcome of cataract surgery in
traumatic cataract.
METHODS
All patients included in this prospective study were subjected complete ocular
examination, intra ocular lens (IOL) power calculation and small incision cataract
surgery (SICS) with IOL implantation. Visual outcome was assessed after 1st week,
2nd week, 6th week and 6 months. Postoperative visual outcome and post-operative
complications were assessed.
RESULTS
Out of 50 cases studied, 56 % of cases were in the age group of less than 20
years. Male: Female ratio was 2.57 : 1. Traumatic cataract was higher in patients
of rural background as compared to urban background (64 % vs 32 %). In 58 %
of cases, penetrating injury was the type of trauma. 60 % of patients had visual
acuity of less than 3/60 at presentation. Corneal injuries (34 %), scleral tear in
(22 %) and iris related problems (18 %) were the most common associated
findings. All the patients were treated with SICS with IOL implantation. Most
common intra-operative complication was posterior capsule rupture seen in 14 %
of cases, 34 % of patients had anterior uveitis as early post-operative complication
and 24 % of patients developed PCO as late post-operative complication; 68 % of
the patients achieved visual acuity of above 6/18.
CONCLUSIONS
Timely management and involvement of other structures in traumatic cataract
determines the visual prognosis of cataract surgery in traumatic cataract. Thus,
our study showed that traumatic cataract can be successfully managed surgically
with intraocular lens implantation with good visual outcome, unless there is
associated corneal opacity or posterior segment involvement. More emphasis
should be laid on the preventive measures like mass health education and
awareness about risk of ocular trauma, and need to adopt safety measures should
be focused, especially during playground, and at workplace.
