Three months follow up of IOL implantation in remote eye camps in Nepal.

In early 1996 Posterior Chamber IOL Implantation was used routinely for the first time in surgical eye camps in the Dhaulagiri and Gandaki regions of Nepal. A series of follow-up camps was organised at the original locations three months following surgery to evaluate the visual outcome. A team of paramedics and doctor of the Himalaya Eye Hospital in Pokhara carried out vision, refraction, slitlamp examination and fundoscopy on 40% of the 424 patients who received a standard power IOL. Improved vision following surgery was seen in 95% of the cases with 93% better than 6/60 uncorrected. A post-op vision of better than 6/18 uncorrected was seen in 62%. Poor outcome was found in 5% (vision equal or worse than pre-op) with only 2 out of 9 cases directly related to the surgery. Only one case with PCO and poor outcome was seen in this study. A spherical equivalent outside the range of +1.00 to -2.50 was seen in 7%. This study indicates that good results can be achieved in eye camps at remote locations with the use of a standard power IOL.