Late diagnosis and surgical treatment of patients diagnosed with unilateral congenital cataract at Fundación Visión, in Asuncion, Paraguay.

Purpose: Providing data on the late diagnosis and surgical treatment of patients who underwent surgery for total unilateral congenital cataract.

Methods

Systematic retrospective review of the medical record of all patients between 0 and 16 years old with total unilateral congenital cataract who underwent surgery at Fundación Vision between January 2010 and July 2012.

Results

Medical records of 37 patients (51 % females) were studied, age was 7.4 (± 4.9) years (average ± SD) and 62% lived on Departamento Central (the most populated region from Paraguay). A total of 97.3% patients underwent late surgical treatment and 86.5% received a late diagnosis. The average time elapsed between the diagnosis and the surgical treatment was one month, and 62.2% of the patients underwent surgery within six months from the diagnosis.

Conclusion

This study evidences that most of the patients in our series had a late treatment as a result of a late diagnosis. Based on these results we recommend establishing strategies to improve the early detection and surgical treatment of the newborns.