PURPOSE: To determine the outcomes and causes of visual impairment and blindness in cataract-operated patients who are living in the central-western zone of São Paulo state. METHODS: A transversal, observational, systematic study was done involving patients inhabitants of five cities from a central-western zone of São Paulo state. The random sample was based on the Demographic Census Data (IBGE, 1995). All patients underwent to visual screening and complete eye examination. The individuals who had cataract-operated eyes were separated for the present study. The results were statistically analyzed by descriptive methods, frequency of occurrence and concordance proportion with 95% confidence intervals. RESULTS: At examination 2.37% of the subjects had cataract-operated eyes. Of the 201 operated eyes 26.9% had visual acuity compatible with blindness or visual impairment. The visual acuity persisted <0.3 even with spetacles in 19% of the patients. Twenty-seven and 9% of the patients had visual acuity improved with refractive error correction. The main causes of poor vision were refractive error, posterior capsule opacification (19.4%), bullous keratophaty (8.3%), cicatricial chorioretinitis (8.3%), aphakic eyes (8.3%), age-related macular degeneration (5.5%), leukoma (5.5%), glaucoma (5.5%), optic atrophy (5.5%), retinal detachment (2.8%), retinal pigment epithelium atrophy (2.8%) and high myopia (2.8%). CONCLUSION: Cataract projects are effective in reducing preventable blindness caused by lens opacity. However, long-term scheduled evaluation of operated patients is necessary avoiding consequent blindness resulting from neglected follow-up.
Cataract extraction; Health promotion; Blindness; Vision, low; Populational surveys; Community health services
