Manual small incision extracapsular cataract surgery in Australia

Abstract

Background: Examination of the results and describing the technique of manual small incision extracapsular cataract extraction on patients with advanced cataracts in urban Australia. Design: A descriptive case series. Participants: Thirty-eight patients at three public hospitals, one tertiary and two secondary ophthalmic units in urban Australia. Methods: Forty eyes with dense mature cataracts with hand movement vision or worse underwent a planned manual small incision extracapsular cataract extraction instead of traditional phaco-emulsification. Main Outcome Measures: Postoperative visual aquity, surgically induced astigmatism and complications. Results: Seventy-eight per cent of patients had an uncorrected visual acuity of 6/12 or better on the first postoperative day. Eighty-three per cent of patients had a distance corrected visual acuity of 6/9 or better 3 months postoperatively. One case was complicated by a posterior capsule rupture. No cases of endophthalmitis were reported. The summated vector mean of the surgically induced astigmatism was 0.089D at 93°. Conclusion: Manual small incision extracapsular cataract extraction is an efficacious cataract surgery technique with good visual outcome and is a safe alternative to phaco-emulsification in suitable cases in a first-world setting.