Incidence of Blindness and Nystagmus in Children from Lahore Affected with Congenital Cataract

Abstract

A retrospective study on Congenital Cataract (CC) was performedbetween October 2015 to May 2016 during ophthalmological consultation at differenthospitals of Lahore. The aim of this research was to determine the incidence of lensextraction, nystagmus and blindness in congenital cataract patients in Lahore. Thediagnosis of Congenital Cataract (CC) was done with the help of ophthalmologists byusing visual acuity test, Snellen chart, ophthalmoscopy biomicroscopy and slit lampexamination. In this study, 180 congenital cataract patients were identified from 36000patients with different eye anomalies and prevalence of CC was 5.0/1000 population.According to gender the incidence of CC was greater (n= 138) in males as compared tofemales (n= 42). The average age of incidence of CC patients was 7.5 years. Theprevalence of blindness, lens extraction and nystagmus in these CC patients was about15% (n=27), 42.8% (n=77) and 42.2% (n=76) respectively. People with CC arediagnosed late in life and therefore have difficulty in accepting the results caused by CC.This will be particularly valuable in providing awareness among affected individualsand let them know proper treatment of diseases which ultimate reduce the total burden ofdisease.