Strabismus in paediatric age (3-16 year): a clinical study

Background: Strabismus is a clinical condition in which the eyes are not aligned with each other properly. The main objective of the study was to study the prevalence, aetiology and the most common type of strabismus in children between 3- 16 years of age.Methods: This was a prospective study conducted from November 2012 to October 2014 at Government regional eye hospital Visakhapatnam. A total of 50 patients included in this study. Children between 3-16 years of age presenting with squint included in this study. All children below 3years and above 16 years excluded from this study. Detailed history regarding the complaint, birth history, developmental history was taken. Patients were thoroughly evaluated for Visual acuity, both distance and near vision with naked eye as well as best corrected visual acuity. Thorough anterior segment evaluation using slit lamp, cycloplegic refraction using atropine (7 years), fundus examination was don.Results: A total of 9678 children attended GREH during the period of the study. Among them total number of children with strabismus was 59.Thus the prevalence of strabismus is 0.6%. Children in the age group of 3-10 years of age are more involved 37 (62.7%).   Exotropia was seen in 34 cases and esotropia in 24 cases. Commitant esotropia was more common, seen in 16 (27.1%) of cases. In exotropia commitant exotropia was more common, seen in 32 cases and incommitant in 2 cases and divergence excess seen in 9 cases.  History of consanguinity present in 22% of cases.Conclusions: Prevalence of squint in children in 3 - 16 years age group was 0.6%. Commitant squint was more common than incommitant squint. Among commitant squint, exotropia was more common than esotropia. More research is needed to validate the role of consanguinity in strabismus.

A clinical study Demographic profile of cataract patients attending tertiary care eye hospital

Objectives: To review demographic characteristics and comorbid systemic disorders in cataract patients attending tertiary care eye hospital. Materials and Methods: A hospital based prospective study was conducted on 2024 cataract patients attending tertiary care eye hospital from January 2022 to August 2022. All patients were subjected to detailed history taking and ocular examination.  Age , gender and comorbid systemic diseases were recorded. Results:   A total of 2024 patients were included in the study. Of which 1226 (60.5%) were females while 798 (39.5%) were males. 749 patients (37%) were found to be between 51-60 years of age followed by 589 patients (29.1%) were found between 61-70 years.  Among  2024  patients  with  cataracts ,687 (33.9%) were found to have comorbidities . 64.6% were females and 35.4% were males among the patients with comorbidities. Hypertension was the most common systemic comorbidity (371 patients-54%) followed by diabetes mellitus (200 patients-29.1%). Conclusion: An increasing prevalence of non-communicable diseases, necessitates a thorough screening before cataract surgery to ensure fitness of the patients for cataract surgery. Presence of systemic comorbidity increase the number of investigations needed for fitness of the patient for cataract surgery, also it can cause intra operative complication and may affect surgical outcome. This suggests that debilitating comorbidities also play a role in patients not getting their cataracts operated timely as they are engrossed with more life threatening issues. Ophthalmologist has to identify the coexisting systemic diseases  and  they should be adequately controlled before surgery to avoid intraoperative and post operative  complications and to achieve better quality of life for patients