With the rising population and an increase in average age, the number of cataract patients was increasing rapidly in the country, said Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospital here on Wednesday.
Brig. (R) Prof. Dr Sabihuddin, Head of the Cataract Department of Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospital talking to the media said that the rate of disease was also scaling up with the upsurge of diabetes people.
He informed that cataract was an age-related degeneration and could be controlled with surgery. Dr Sabihuddin advised the government to come forward and strengthen the eye departments in all state-run hospitals, including those established at the district level, as the increasing number of patients cannot be handled by the current facilities.
He advised that it should be operated only when it matures and eyesight becomes too low to perform normal activities. However, he added that before deciding on cataract surgery, an opinion from an ophthalmologist must be sought.
He informed that Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospital has thirty air-conditioned operation theatres, twenty-five expert doctors, six anaesthetists, and state-of-the-art diagnostic facilities while around 90 to 100 surgeries were performed daily. He added that surgical camps were frequently organized in the far-flung areas under the outreach programme and almost 100 surgeries were conducted on a daily basis.
