A lack of awareness of DR coupled with a high proportion of cases already at a sight-threatening stage of retinopathy at their first presentation reflects the need for improved awareness programs to reduce the burden of blindness from DR in Nepal.

This study is aimed at reporting experiences with telemedicine between Nepal and the USA and at reporting the prevalence of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and diabetic retinopathy (DR) in rural Nepal. AMD and DR are becoming more significant factors for non-reversible vision loss in rural Nepal due to increasing life expectancy and urbanisation. The prevalence of DM is low compared with the developed world, but the percentage of diabetics with DR is high, presumably due to limited access to healthcare. The higher prevalence of DM in Hetauda is explained as being due to a more urban lifestyle, dietary habits (more deep-fried food) and more advanced age.

OCT is a useful tool for evaluating CSME. It can show the various morphological variants of CSME while the BCVA and CMT are fairly different.

Purpose: To evaluate clinical characteristics, visual outcomes and globe survival after intraocular foreign body removal from posterior segment via pars plana approach. Methods: A hospital based retrospective study. All the patients of penetrating eye injury with intraocular foreign body in posterior segment as detected by computed tomography were enrolled from 2012 to 2014.Results: Thirty patients of 30 eyes were included. The mean age was 27.7 years. (2-52). Twenty-four (80%) were male. Out of 30 eyes 19 (63.3%) eyes had injury at Zone 1 and 11 (36.7%) eyes had injury at Zone 2. The mean time spent between primary repair following surgery and intra ocular foreign body removal, was 15.47 days. Retinal detachment and endophthalmitis prior to intraocular foreign body removal was present in 9/30 of eyes. We looked for correlation between post operative Phthisis bulbi with zone of injury and pre operative endophthalmitis and preoperative retinal detachment. However, p value for the above correlation was more than 0.552 and 0.815 respectively, which was statistically not significant.Conclusions: The eyes with posterior segment intraocular foreign bodies showing clinical features of preoperative endophthalmitis, retinal detachment and the zone of injury also did not have any direct significance with globe survival.

Introduction: Nepal has many mountains including the highest one in the world. People living in high altitude are often involved in climbing mountains. Objective: To explore the pattern of vitreo-retinal disorders at high altitude in Nepal. Materials and methods: Consecutive patients aged 40 years and older who presented at the micro-surgical eye camp at Lukla of Solukhumbu district (2,860 metres) were included. Detailed ocular and systemic histories and ocular examination including dilated fundus evaluation were done. Results: There were a total 81 patients with the mean age of 56.7 years (S.D 11.15). Females (51.9 %) outnumbered males. Sherpa comprised of 76.5 % followed by Rai (9.8 %). The main occupation was agriculture (51.9 %) followed by mountain trekking (28.4 %). Smokers comprised of 13.5 %. Hypertension was the predominant systemic problem (28 %). The best corrected visual acuity of 6/18 and better was found in 86.4 % of cases and less than 3/ 60 in 3.6 % of cases. Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) was found in 19.6 % of cases with a predominant mild AMD (16 %), hypertensive retinopathy in 12.2 %, with grade I hypertensive change in 8.6 %, retinal vein occlusion (RVO) in 7.1 % of cases and with a branch RVO in 4.9 %. Dilated and tortuous retinal vessels were present in 25.9 % of cases; out of this, 9.8 % of the cases had concurrent AMD and/or hypertensive retinopathy. Other retinal problems were macular hole (2.46 %), solar retinopathy (2.46 %) and choroidal tear (1.2 %). Conclusion: AMD, hypertensive retinopathy, and RVO are the main vitreo-retinal disorders besides the dilated and tortuous retinal vessels in people living at high altitude in Nepal.