Introduction:
The school eye screening (SES) program became essential to India’s National Program for the Control of Blindness and Visual Impairment. The program emphasizes screening children in schools to tackle avoidable blindness; however, challenges remain to be addressed.
Aims and Objectives:
This study appraises the various aspects of the SES program and explores the challenges encountered in the Kolar district of Southern India.
Methods:
A mixed-methods cross-sectional study in which thirty ophthalmic assistants and ophthalmologists who worked in the SES program for the past 3 years were included in the study. Participants were asked to fill out the semi-structured questionnaire, including Likert’s questions, followed by brief interviews on the various aspects of the program. Thematic analysis of the responses was done, and data were represented as percentages and proportions.
Results:
Out of the 12 ophthalmologists and 18 ophthalmic assistants, 70% believe that technical and operational aspects are appropriate, but there is a delay in issuing spectacles. While 85% consider themselves fully aware of the program’s guidelines, 78% believe that the entire district is not covered. Forty-percent believe schools are unwilling to conduct the program and 58% think training time for teachers is insufficient. 78.5% agree that the program is child-friendly and parents are willing to participate. Eighty-eight percent claim referral to higher centers; however, children do not follow up. Twenty-six percent think that diseases besides refractive error are not appropriately addressed.
Conclusion:
This study indicates that most believe the current SES program effectively achieves its programmatic goals and objectives. However, gaps and concerns exist with the potential for improvement.
Background and Purpose:
Acute pancreatitis is one of the major causes of acute abdominal pain that requires hospital admission worldwide. Our objective was to find the proportion of acute pancreatitis in acute abdomen cases among the rural population and to assess pancreatic enzymes (lipase and amylase) for the severity of acute pancreatitis. By doing so, we can establish the importance of a single enzymatic marker in acute pancreatitis.
Methods:
A retrospective and observational study was undertaken on men and women of all age groups admitted over 1 year with acute pancreatitis at a rural tertiary care hospital located at the tristate junction of South India. Pancreatic enzymes (lipase and amylase) were compared based on the grading and severity of pancreatitis according to the modified computed tomography severity index.
Results:
The proportion of acute pancreatitis was 40% among all acute abdomen cases. Most patients with acute pancreatitis were chronic alcoholic men (62.5%). The common finding in abdominal ultrasonography (USG) was the enlargement of the pancreas (97.5%). There was an overall rise in serum lipase levels in all acute pancreatitis patients, especially in alcoholic patients. The median lipase levels were higher in severe acute pancreatitis than in moderate acute pancreatitis, with P = 0.006. In comparison, there was no significant difference in amylase values between them.
Conclusions:
In this study, we could conclude that acute pancreatitis is one of the major emergency conditions in this region of rural India, especially among men who are chronic alcoholics. The enlargement of the pancreas was the most frequent finding in USG among these patients. We suggest that a single pancreatic marker (serum lipase) in acute pancreatitis can be cost-effective. Moreover, serum lipase can also be a marker for assessing the severity of acute pancreatitis.
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