Pneumatic retinopexy (PR) is an alternative to scleral buckling for the surgical repair of selected retinal detachments. A gas bubble is injected into the vitreous cavity, and the patient is positioned so that the bubble closes the retinal break (s), allowing absorption of the subretinal fluid. Cryotherapy or laser photocoagulation is applied around the retinal break(s) to form a permanent seal. The procedure can be done in an outpatient setting, and no incisions are required. A multicenter randomized controlled clinical trial has demonstrated that the anatomic success rate is comparable to scleral buckling, but the morbidity is significantly less with PR. If the macula was detached for less than two weeks, the visual results are significantly better with PR than with scleral buckling. Cataract surgery was required significantly more often following scleral buckling than following PR. Two independent reports have shown that an attempt with PR does not disadvantage the eye; such that the results of scleral buckling after failed PR are not significantly different than primary scleral buckling. A comprehensive review of the world literature on PR revealed 27 statistical series totaling 1,274 eyes. These combined series had a single-operation success rate of 80%, and 98% were cured with reoperations. Pneumatic retinopexy should be considered in cases without inferior or extensive retinal breaks and without significant proliferative vitreoretinopathy. The cost of buckling varies from 4 to 10 times that of PR.

A multivariate analysis was done on 96 eyes to evaluate the effect of various risk factors on the final visual outcome after laser photocoagulation for clinically significant macular oedema (CSME) in diabetic retinopathy. Advanced age of the patient, large size of CSME and poor baseline visual acuity were found to be significantly associated with poorer outcome (p<0.05). The association of nephropathy and hypertension with poorer visual outcome was of boderline significance (p = 0.054 and 0.07, respectively). Wavelength of the laser (argon or krypton) used for treatment did not significantly influence the outcome.

Lens induced glaucomas are a common occurence in India. An attempt was made to understand the clinical modes of presentation and post operative visual results in 93 patients with lens induced glaucoma, 49 phacomorphic and 44 phacolytic, attending our institute during 1994. All these patients were subjected to a planned extracapsular cataract extraction. Forty four percent had a posterior chamber intraocular lens implantation following surgery. Fifty seven percent eyes with phacomorphic glaucoma and 61% with phacolytic glaucoma recovered visual acuity of 6/12 or better. There was no significant difference in the final visual acuity between those patients who had an intraocular lens implanted and those who did not (P=0.18). Univariate analysis was performed for selected risk factors such as age, sex and duration of glaucomatous process as predictors of final visual acuity and odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals were calculated. Patients with age more than 60 years (OR=2.7, 95% CI=1.04 - 6.93) and in whom the glaucoma was present for more than 5 days (OR=3.1, 95% CI=1.21 - 8.13) had a significantly higher risk of poor visual outcome post-operatively.

Thirty three eyes of 33 patients were prospectively evaluated to study the short term efficacy, safety, and overall surgical outcome of initial trabeculectomy for primary glaucomas with adjunctive intraoperative on postoperative 5-Fluorouracil (5-FU) use. Twelve eyes served as control who underwent trabeculectomy without adjunctive antimetabolites. Eleven eyes received intraoperative 5-FU, while 10 eyes received subconjunctival 5-FU postoperatively. Intraocular pressure (IOP) was maintained below 22 mmHg at 3 months of follow up in 90.9% and 80% of patients in the intraoperative and postoperative 5-FU groups respectively, without use of additional antiglaucoma medications, whereas 66.7% of the patients in the control group achieved similar IOP levels. Hypotony (I.O.P.<6mmHg) was seen more commonly after intraoperative 5-FU (27.3%). Corneal epithelial defects were seen exclusively in the postoperative 5-FU group (40%). The use of intraoperative 5-FU exclusively as a mode of antimetabolite delivery seems an acceptable alternative to enhance success rates of trabeculectomy for the primary glaucomas.

Conventional Snellen visual acuity chart has unequal difficulty score and irregular progression in letter size causing jumping effect at different visual acuity levels. There is also increase in number of letters from above downwards. Consequently one or two mistakes per line has different meaning of visual acuity at different levels. We designed a new visual acuity chart of fourteen lines in Hindi and Gujarati to facilitate standardization in visual acuity measurement. These charts are designed for use at six meter distance, and the illumination is provided from front. These charts provide a standardized way of measuring visual acuity using local languages.

Intracapsular cataract extraction is still the most common type of operation performed in India, especially in eye camps, and most of these are done without magnification. To assess the surgical outcome of intracapsular cataract surgery in a rural hospital with various magnifying systems, 121 consecutive eyes (121 patients) with uncomplicated cataract were randomly allocated to surgery with the operating microscope, binocular loupe or unaided eye. The surgery was performed by either consultants or first year residents. The best corrected vision at least four weeks post-operatively was compared among the three groups. The performance between the consultants and the junior residents was also compared. The improvement of surgical outcome with magnification was statistically significant (p=0.0045); and clinically important with a relative risk reduction of 60.6%. The comparison between microscope and loupe magnification did not show a significant difference (p=0.24). However, with an operating microscope, the consultants performed significantly better than the junior residents. These findings suggest that the use of magnification in intracapsular cataract extraction provides a definite advantage over an unaided eye and that the binocular loupe is a good alternative to the operating microscope in this kind of surgery.