Incidence and Risk Factors of Macular Edema After Phacoemulsification in Southern Pakistan

Objective: To determine the incidence and risk factors of macular edema (ME) after phacoemulsification at Institute of Ophthalmology, Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences (LUMHS)/ Jamshoro Sindh. Methodology: This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in Institute of Ophthalmology LUMHS, Jamshoro, during six months from December 2020 to June 2021. Patients who underwent phacoemulsification surgery for cataract removal, aged 18 years or older, both male and female patients with adequate follow-up post-surgery were included. All patients underwent Phacoemulsification, receive standard post-operative topical medication i.e, Moxifloxacin 0.5% and Prednisolone 1% (1 hourly for 1 week, and 4 times per day after 1 week). The patients were undergone routine follow up and were subjected to visual acuity measurement. The measurement of postoperative CME by SS-OCT was done 1 week postoperatively followed by 3th week and 6th week. All the information was entered ana analyzed into SPSS 26 version. Results: A total of 96 patients, those who underwent phacoemulsification were studied; their mean age was 54.11 +8.97 years. Males were 58.3% and females were 41.7%. Out of all, 24.0% cases were diabetes, 8.3% were hypertensive. After surgery on 3rd post-operative week macular edema was found in 9.4% of the cases and on 6th post-operative week it was found in 19.8% of the cases. Post operative macular edema was found statistically significant according to diabetes mellitus and hypertension, (p = < 0.05), while it was statistically insignificant according to age, gender, ME in fellow eye and high myopia on 3rd postoperative week p-values were quite insignificant (p= >0.05), while macular edema (6th week) was found statistically significant according to age (p-0.038) while statistically insignificant according to gender, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, ME in fellow eye and high myopia on 3rd postoperative week p-values were quite insignificant (p= >0.05). Conclusion: As per study conclusion the occurrence of macular edema was observed to be the less frequent after phacoemulsification. Male gender, age more than 45 years and diabetes mellitus were observed to be the most common risk factors.