CATARACT SURGERY RATE EYE CARE CENTERS IN THE OCCUPIED PALESTINE: A RETROSPECTIVE STUDY
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Date
2022-07-27
Authors
Fayez Rabbaa, Ru’a
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
جامعة النجاح الوطنية
Abstract
Introduction: Nearly half of vision impairment and blindness among elderly people are due to cataract, but fortunately, this decreased vision is reversible as advancing technology allows for cataract surgery to be conducted with high accuracy and precision. Despite the fact that cataract is easily treated, cataract was reported to be the major cause of blindness in Occupied Palestine among people over the age of 55. Cataract surgery rate is one of the indicators used to measure cataract service delivery in countries. It is a quantifiable measure of the cataract surgical services accessibility to those who need it. The World Health Organization has set a cataract surgery rate of 3,000 per million people per year as the minimum rate required to eliminate blindness due to cataract. As there is limited information on the cataract surgery rate in Occupied Palestine, them this study has sought to measure the cataract surgery rate in Occupied Palestine.
Methods: A retrospective records review study was conducted in 2019 and 2020 to determine the cataract surgery rate at all cataract surgery hospitals and medical centers in Occupied Palestine.
Results: Cataract surgery rate decreased from 2, 297 operations per million in 2019 to 1, 885 due to corona virus pandemic in 2020. Out of 211 cataract-operated eyes with corrected visual acuity, 93.84% of them achieved good visual acuity (≥6/18), 5.21% of them had borderline acuity (<6/18–6/60). Only 0.95% had poor visual acuity (<6/60).
Conclusion and Recommendations : Cataract surgery rates in 2019 and 2020 were lower than the minimum rate set by the World Health organization. Therefore, there is a need to increase cataract surgery rate across the country. Visual outcomes of cataract surgery have improved in Occupied Palestine and have been found to be very close to World Health Organization satisfactory outcomes.
Keywords: Cataract; cataract surgery; cataract surgery rate; cataract surgery outcome; visual impairment; cataract blindness
Description
This Thesis is Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Public Health, Faculty of Graduate Studies, An-Najah National University, Nablus - Palestine.
Keywords
CATARACT SURGERY RATE EYE CARE CENTERS IN THE OCCUPIED PALESTINE: A RETROSPECTIVE STUDY