Study on cases of blindness among kids earns PGI doc international award

Dr Jaspreet Sukhija, Assistant Professor, Eye Department, PGI, won two prestigious international awards at the recently concluded Annual Conference of the European Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery held in Milan, Italy.

He was awarded the first prize for the best surgical case presentation in the young ophthalmologist category, where it was shown for the first time how successful phacoemulsification (cataract surgery) can be performed under local anaesthesia in patients who shake violently and are unfit for general anaesthesia. The precision and accuracy of each step in cataract surgery in such patients was highlighted.

He also won the Orbis International Gold Medal for the best scientific presentation related to treatment and prevention of blindness in the developing world. The study revealed that blindness due to cataract in children in India needed much more attention and care as most of the children were from remote areas with little access to medical facilities.

The study titled, "Paediatric cataract surgery: Is outreach facility an option", compared the outcome of childhood cataract surgery in a rural set up (base hospital) and tertiary care centre (PGIMER, Chandigarh).

As per the study, children in the age group of 5-16 years with visually significant cataract underwent phacoaspiration (cataract surgery) with intraocular lens (IOLs) implantation at an eye camp setting and tertiary care centre. All the children were operated upon using contemporary microsurgical techniques and implanted with IOLs.

As many as 59 children with paediatric cataract screened in the eye camp were operated at the base hospital (eye camp setting). Another 48 children with childhood cataract were operated at the tertiary care centre. The visual acuity achieved at 6 months was comparable in the two groups (54.23% in the eye camp and 62.5% eyes in the tertiary hospital achieved 6/12 visual acuity).

The percentage of complications post surgery was almost similar in both the groups. But the most striking feature was that children did not return for check ups after a few initial visits post surgery.

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