Efficacy and safety of mass cataract surgery campaign in a developing country

To determine the visual outcomes achieved in terms of efficacy and safety during a mass eye surgery campaign in a low-income developing country.

Three hundred fifteen eyes of 305 patients underwent extracapsular cataract extraction with intraocular lens implantation in a prospective, analytical, experimental, and nonrandomized study on patients who underwent cataract surgery during the campaign that two Spanish nongovernmental organizations conducted in December 2008 in a district hospital in Bobo-Dioulasso (Burkina Faso).

Mean age was 61.97 ± 14.39 years. The mean uncorrected distance visual acuity before surgery was 2.17 ± 0.7 (20/3000), which improved to 0.86 ± 0.64 logMAR (20/150) 3 months after cataract surgery. The mean spherical equivalent at 3 months was -0.87 ± 1.90 diopters. The corrected distance visual acuity was 0.52 ± 0.44 logMAR (20/60) 3 months after surgery, 68.7% of the patients had good visual outcomes, and 9.16% had poor outcomes. A total of 41.4% of the operated eyes showed a spherical equivalent within ± 1.00 diopter of emmetropia. The most common intraoperative complication was posterior capsule rupture (incidence, 2.9%, 9 of 315), and the most serious complication was expulsive hemorrhage (incidence, 0.3%, 1 of 315). Three months after surgery, 2.9% (9 of 315) of the eyes was affected by posterior capsular opacity.

A mass cataract campaign performed in a developing country with the proper technique and standardized protocols of action improved the visual outcome of the patients. The rate of incidence of extracapsular extractions is comparable to that estimated for developed countries.