Amematekpor LD, Amankwaa-Frempong D, Owusu E. Visual outcomes following pediatric cataract surgery at Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Ghana. World J Ophthalmol 2025; 9(1): 105857 [DOI: 10.5318/wjo.v9.i1.105857]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Lynette Delali Amematekpor, Department of Optometry and Visual Science, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi AK-385-1973, Ashanti Region, Ghana. delalilynette@gmail.com
Research Domain of This Article
Ophthalmology
Article-Type of This Article
Retrospective Study
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Lynette Delali Amematekpor, Doreen Amankwaa-Frempong, Emmanuel Owusu, Department of Optometry and Visual Science, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi AK-385-1973, Ashanti Region, Ghana
Doreen Amankwaa-Frempong, Department of Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat, Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, Kumasi AK-039-5028 , Ashanti Region, Ghana
Author contributions: Amematekpor LD, Amankwaa-Frempong D, and Owusu E participated in the study's conceptualization and design; Amematekpor LD wrote the manuscript; Amematekpor LD and Amankwaa-Frempong D were involved in the data acquisition; Owusu E verified all the study data; Amematekpor LD and Owusu E were involved in data analysis and interpretation.
Institutional review board statement: The study protocol was approved by the Research and Development Unit at Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH IRB/AP/062/22) and the Committee on Human Research, Publication and Ethics (CHRPE) of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (CHRPE/AP/549/22).
Informed consent statement: The retrospective design of this study prevented researchers from establishing direct contact with participants. As a result, consent for publication does not apply.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Data sharing statement: The dataset used and analyzed during the study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Lynette Delali Amematekpor, Department of Optometry and Visual Science, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi AK-385-1973, Ashanti Region, Ghana. delalilynette@gmail.com
Received: February 10, 2025 Revised: April 1, 2025 Accepted: May 18, 2025 Published online: June 18, 2025 Processing time: 129 Days and 14.2 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND
Pediatric cataract is a public health concern, and it causes long-term functional impairment and impacts the quality of life of the child with cataract. Visual impairment in children due to cataract has devastating consequences on their health, social life, and academic performance and places a socio-economic burden on the child’s family and society as a whole. Globally, pediatric cataract is a significant contributor to ocular morbidity and blindness. Findings from this study will help quantify the visual benefits of pediatric cataract surgical interventions and identify opportunities for improving pediatric cataract services.
AIM
To evaluate the visual acuity outcomes of children after cataract surgery.
METHODS
The study employed a retrospective electronic review of pediatric cataract surgeries from January 2019 to July 2021 at the pediatric unit of the eye department at Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH), Ghana. Patient clinical data including demographics, cataract presentation, pre-operative and post-operative visual acuity, surgical procedure, postoperative complications, interventions and refraction were collected and analyzed using the Statistical Package and Service Solution. Pearson's χ2 test and regression statistics were used to summarize data at a significance of P < 0.05.
RESULTS
163 children (257 eyes) underwent cataract surgery at KATH. The overall mean age was 3.81 ± 3.56 years. Congenital cataract was commonly observed (56.4%). All children underwent keratometry and phacoemulsification procedures. A few children (9.8%) experienced postoperative complications while 90.8% did not require further intervention after the surgery. After the surgery 27.0% of the children had refraction and the majority were corrected for myopia and near addition (12.9%). An analysis of the association of postoperative visual acuity and the type of cataract was statistically significant (P value < 0.05). There was a significant improvement in the visual outcomes following cataract surgery.
CONCLUSION
Timely pediatric cataract surgery improves postoperative visual outcomes. Creating awareness and implementing screening programs is important to ensure that the prevalence of childhood blindness is reduced to the barest minimum.
Core Tip: This study examines visual outcomes after pediatric cataract surgery at Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Ghana, revealing significant insights into post-operative recovery. Our findings indicate a substantial improvement in visual acuity among children, with early intervention and tailored rehabilitation playing critical roles. Additionally, we identified key factors influencing visual outcomes, such as age at surgery, type of cataract, the cause and duration of cataract, complications after the surgery, follow-up visits and adherence to post-operative care. This study highlights the importance of creating awareness and implementing screening programs to reduce the prevalence of childhood cataract.
