A COMPARATIVE PROSPECTIVE STUDY OF EFFICACY AND VISUAL OUTCOME OF PHACOEMULSIFICATION AND SICS IN NORTH INDIAN POPULATION IN AND AROUND LUCKNOW.

Abstract

PURPOSE: To evaluate efcacy and visual outcome of manual small incision cataract surgery (SICS) and phacoemulsication. METHODS: A prospective, interventional, observational, follow up study was conducted on 120 patients with clinically signicant senile cataract undergoing cataract surgery by either SICS or phacoemulsication, at a tertiary eye care centre in Lucknow. The follow up evaluations were carried out at post-operative day st rd th 1, 1 week, 3 week and 6 week. RESULTS: On rst postoperative day, there was signicantly better visual outcome with phacoemulsication than SICS (p = 0.005) with 80% patients in SICS group and 90% patients in phacoemulsication group, th had best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) better than equal to 6/18. However at 6 week, nal visual recovery was similar in both the groups (BCVA 6/18 in 96.7% in SICS group and 100% in phacoemulsication group) with no statistically signicant difference. There was no signicant difference in overall per operative and post operative complications between SICS and phacoemulsication. SICS and phacoemulsication did not show signicant difference in surgery induced astigmatism (SIA) with SIA of 0.733D and 0.775D in SICS and phacoemulsication group respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Phacoemulsication is superior to SICS in terms of early visual rehabilitation. But there is no signicant difference in nal visual outcome and complication rates between the two techniques.