A clinical study on phacoemulsification versus manual small incision cataract surgery in rural hospital setting

Introduction and Objectives: A prospective randomized control study was conducted to compare the manual small incision cataract surgery with phacoemulsification in hospital with objectives to study main out come measures uncorrected visual acuity on post operative day 1, best corrected visual acuity post operative day 6 weeks and study secondary outcome in terms of complication rates, effect of ocular and systemic co –morbidity on visual acuity out comes and operative time taken. Materials and Methods: 100 patients with age related cataract were randomly assigned Phacoemulsification and SICS groups [group A (n=50) and group B (n=50) respectively] with written informed consent and ethical clearance. Results: There was no significant difference between techniques regarding uncorrected visual acuity on post operative day 1 and best corrected visual acuity on post operative day 6 weeks. However visual acuity on post operative day 1 showed suggestive significance of “p” value 0.064 between the two groups. Greater proportion of patients had good outcomes in both the groups as regards to final visual acuity at the end of 6 weeks showing “p” value 0.310 with Fisher Exact test. Both comorbidities showed no difference in term of events. Mean surgical time was in group. A 15.97 +/-2.02 and in group B 8.40 +/- 1.34 showing a significant “p” value of less than 0.001 using student t test. Conclusion: Manual small incision cataract surgery is similar to phacoemulsification as regards to intra and post operative outcomes, decreased complication rates final visual acuity with minimal effect of co existing comorbidities on events.