To study the visual outcome and complications of small incision cataract extraction (SICS) with intra ocular lens implantation (IOL)

Background: cataract is one of the most commonly performed surgery all over the world. worldwide,285 million people are visually impaired,39 million are blind and out of these people,18 million had blindness due to cataract. 82% of all blind above the age of 50 years live in developing countries. globally about 15 million cataract operations are performed annually. aim: to study the visual outcome and complications of small incision cataract extraction (sics) with intra ocularlensimplantation (iol). methods: this retrospective study was conducted in the federal government services hospital,islamabad from 1stjanuary 2012 to 31st december 2012. 500 cases of sics+iol were included in the study. data was analyzed on spss 17. results: 500 subjects aging 40-80 years having uncomplicated cataract underwent extensive ophthalmic examination before and after surgery. mean age at surgery was 64 years with female predominance of 54.6%. post-operative uncorrected visual acuity (ucva) was 6/18.50.6% (253) improved to 6/12 or more with spherical correction and 32.4% (162) improved to 6/12 or more with cylindrical correction,8% patients developed elschnigs pearls,8% had irregular pupils. astigmatism was noticeably low ranging from+/-0.75to +/-2.75cylindricalcorrection. surgically induced astigmatism calculated by simple subtraction. the study showed reduced health care costs,reduced postop inflammation,reduced astigmatism and early refractive stability. conclusion: good results can be obtained with small incision cataract surgery and intraocular lens implantation in the developing world. sics with iol is a safe procedure in expert hands.