Visual outcome after phacoemulsification with lens implant in diabetic and non-diabetic patients; A comparative study

Objective: to compare the visual outcomes of phacoemulsification surgery with intraocular lens (iol) in persons with and without diabetes at end of follow-up. methods: this was a comparative,cross sectional,observational study with non-probability,purposive sampling. after approval from “research ethical committee of isra post-graduate institute of ophthalmology karachi,92 patients with cataract in one eye were selected. patients were divided into two groups. group a consisted of 48 diabetics and group b consisted of 44 non- diabetics with or without diabetes in the age group ≥ 30 years were included. patients with small pupil,pseudo exfoliation syndrome,diabetic retinopathy,and positive history of uveitis,glaucoma,and macular degeneration were excluded. data analysis was performed by spss version 20.0. results: best corrected visual acuity (bcva) in diabetic patients improved from 0.813 ± 0.181 log mar pre operatively to 0.183 ± 0.143 after the period of six months post-operatively. corresponding results in non-diabetics were 0.66 ± 0.31 and 0.08 ± 0.092 log mar (p value = 0.001). if who criteria was considered,87.5% diabetics and 92% non-diabetics achieved normal vision (log mar 0 to 0.5; ≥ 6/12,) on the first postoperative day. remaining 12.5% diabetics and 8% non-diabetics achieved moderate vision (0.6 to 1 log mar) on first post-operative day improving to normal vision within a week. conclusion: visual outcomes in diabetics after phacoemulsification with intra ocular lens implant is almost as good as that in non-diabetic patient if the diabetics have no retinopathy and have good glycemic control. © 2017,professional medical publications. all rights reserved.