Factors Associated with Cataract Surgical Outcomes in a Tertiary Health Facility in Oyo State, Nigeria: A Retrospective Study

Abstract

Background: Cataract surgery is the most common operation performed in ophthalmology. It is the commonest cause of reversible blindness globally, in Sub-Saharan Africa and Nigeria. The study examined some factors affecting the outcome of cataracts surgery measured by Visual acuity after 6 weeks. Methods: Data was collected from the records of ophthalmic patients who had cataract surgery at LAUTECH Teaching Hospital Ogbomoso, from the period of January 2013 to December 2018. Two hundred and twenty-seven patients’ records were retrieved for the study. Logistic Regression was used to investigate factors associated with the outcome of Cataracts Surgery. The goodness of fit test was used to determine the fit of the model to the data. Results: Two variables; intraoperative complication, and unaided visual acuity on the fir st postoperative day were statistically significant (p-value < 0.05). The outcome of surgery using unaided visual acuity after six weeks of surgery showed that 47.1% of the patients had a good visual outcome (6/18) or better and 52.9% had a poor outcome (worse than 6/60). Factors such as complications within six weeks, presence of ocular and systemic comorbidity, and presence of intraoperative complications were found to increase the likelihood of poor outcomes in cataract surgery. Conclusion: This study has shown that Intraoperative complications and unaided visual acuity on the first postoperative day are important to the outcome of cataract surgery. Therefore, the two factors should be given attention during cataract surgery