Stages of Development in Cataract Surgery at the Chulalongkorn University Hospital (From 1982 to 1987)

Prachak Prachakvej, M.D.
Vilavun Puangsricharern_, M.D.
Department of Ophthalmology, Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University Hospital.

Excerpt from the article
INTRODUCTION

Cataract is the leading cause of blindness in Thailand. From a 1983 survey, approximately 1.14% of our entire population of 55 million are blind of which 47.3% are from cataract (visual acuity 3/60 or 0.05). This implies that cataract induced blindness exceeds a grand total of 270,000 in all.

Although, through the effort of the Ministry of Public Health and a well-organized group of ophthalmologists and assistants, the prevalence of blindness has been brought down from 1.14% to 0.6% as evidenced in the last 1987 survey, blindness from cataract remains the most important problem and surgery is the only way to alleviate the condition. For more than 40 years, and until a decade ago, the intracapsular cataract extraction technique was the generally accepted and most widely-used standard surgical procedure.

Ridley  was the first eye surgeon to use the intraocular lens implantation with cataract surgery in 1949. But his technique and intraocular lens were soon beset with unexpected snags due to un satisfactory results. Then in 1977, 34 years later, Shearings  introduced a new type of intraocular lens implant which fitted well with the extracapsular cataract extraction technique. This new method was modified later by several surgeons which in cluded simcoe,   one of the leading eye doctors whose technique was subsequently used by many Thai ophthalmologists. The new technique of ex tracapsular cataract extraction with intraocular lens implantation was then developed and progressed so rapidly that in no time it became widely popularized.

By the year 1982, it was accorded general acceptance all over the world. Incidentally, the flying eye hospital of the orbis project also came to Thailand in December 1982. Since then, the trend of cataract surgery at the Chulalongkorn University Hospital has started to change by leaps and bounds.

From 1982 to 1987, a total of 4,829 cases of cataract surgery were performed at the Department of Ophthalmology. This paper will clearly demonstrate the changes of cataract surgical techniques in our institute.

Thai J Ophthalmol 1988; 2(1): 35