A clinic based survey of blindness and eye disease in Cambodia

Ian Thomson

Aims: To survey the spectrum of eye disease presenting to rural eye clinics in Cambodia.

Methods: A total of 1381 patients seen consecutively at 13 eye clinics were examined and the findings recorded.

Results: 231 (16.7%) were bilaterally blind (visual acuity <3/60 in both eyes); 263 (19%) were unilaterally blind, and 169 (12%) had low vision (visual acuity <6/18 in the better eye). Cataract was the commonest cause of visual loss in all three categories and was responsible respectively in 69%, 40% and 55% of each group. Trachoma was diagnosed in 13% of patients. Thirty-three of them needed lid surgery for trichiasis.

Conclusion: With the difficult practical and political situation in Cambodia there seems little prospect of making substantial inroads into the backlog of avoidable blindness in the near future.

Published courtesy of : Br J Ophthalmol 1997; 81: 578-80.
Web site: bjo.bmjjournals.com