title: Evaluation of a Public Child Eye Health Tertiary Facility for Pediatric Cataract in Southern Nigeria I: Visual Acuity Outcome.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  A retrospective study of the outcome of congenital and developmental cataract surgery was conducted in a public child eye health tertiary facility in children <16 years of age in Southern Nigeria, as part of an evaluation.
  
  
  METHODS
  Manual Small Incision Cataract Surgery with or without anterior vitrectomy was performed. The outcome measures were visual acuity (VA) and change (gain) in visual acuity. The age of the child at onset, duration of delay in presentation, ocular co-morbidity, non ocular co-morbidity, gender, and pre operative visual acuity were matched with postoperative visual acuity. A total of 66 children were studied for a period of six weeks following surgery.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Forty eight (72.7%) children had bilateral congenital cataracts and 18 (27.3%) children had bilateral developmental cataracts. There were 38(57.6%) males and 28 (42.4%) females in the study. Thirty Five (53%) children had good visual outcome (normal vision range 6/6/ -6/18) post-operatively. The number of children with blindness (vision <3/60) decreased from 61 (92.4%) pre-operatively to 4 (6.1%) post-operatively. Post operative complication occurred in 6.8% of cases six week after surgery. Delayed presentation had an inverse relationship with change (gain) in visual acuity (r = - 0.342; p-value = 0.005). Pre-operative visual acuity had a positive relationship with post operative change (gain) in visual acuity (r = 0.618; p-value = 0.000).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Predictors of change in visual acuity in our study were; delayed presentation and pre-operative VA. Cataract surgery in children showed clinical benefit.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, University of Calabar Teaching Hospital, Calabar, Cross River State, Nigeria.
authors.forename: Roseline E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Duke
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, Port Harcourt, Nigeria.
authors.forename: Adedayo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Adio
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, University of Calabar Teaching Hospital, Calabar, Cross River State, Nigeria.
authors.forename: Sidney K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Oparah
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, University of Calabar Teaching Hospital, Calabar, Cross River State, Nigeria.
authors.forename: Friday
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Odey
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Medicine, University of Calabar Teaching Hospital, Calabar, Cross River State, Nigeria.
authors.forename: Okon A
authors.initials: OA
authors.lastname: Eyo
keywords: Bilateral cataracts; Clinical benefit; Congenital; Developmental; Outcome; Southern Nigeria; Visual acuity