Dr. Bhavana Sharma, S09085, Dr. Sanjeev Agarwal, Dr. Kavita Kumar, Dr. Sooraj Singh Kubrey
Hospital based longitudinal study undertaken at central India tertiary centre to highlight magnitude of corneal blindness,socio demographic profile,causes&contributing factors&role of prevention,early referral and intervention to eliminate it.56,876 patients were evaluated out of which 213 were cornealy blind.Burden was found to be 0.37%:- 0.27% were bilaterally blind&0.10% were unilaterally.
Mean age was 42.06±20.8yrs.People in agricultural work;from rural areas were 1.6&2.8 times at risk respectively.Lack of treatment contributed 1.5 times more risk.Commonest predisposing factors were trauma(47.4%),conjunctivitis(35.6%).Commonest causes were keratitis(41%),corneal opacity(31%).Pre intervention,presenting VA of all patients was>1.3 logMAR.Which changed post intervention to 1–1.3 logMAR in 39.4%(chi square141.9;p<0.001).In 18.3% VA improved to<1 logMAR.Intervention was successful in eliminating blindness in 57.7% eyes.Prevention and timely management can help in eliminating this burden