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Purpose: Cataract remains the leading cause of blindness and visual impairment in most low-and middle-income countries, with the greatest burden borne by women. To achieve Global Action Plan targets, cataract programs must target people, especially women, with maximum need. This study examines whether cataract surgical programs in three major north Indian eyecare institutions are equitable and describes a refined indicator for reporting equity.Methods: Retrospective one-year cross-sectional study of cataract surgery utilization using routine administrative data from three north Indian eyecare institutions. Patient data were categorized by paying category, sex, and preoperative visual acuity. Comparisons were made between payment categories and sexes.Results: Out of the total number of patients operated, 86,230 were in the non-paying category and 56,738 in the paying category. Overall, 8.2% were blind, 21.1% were severely visual impaired (SVI) or worse, and 86.1% were moderate visual impaired (MVI) or worse. Non-paying patients had a significantly higher proportion of poorer visual categories compared to paying patients [(blind, 9.7% vs. 5.8%; SVI or worse, 24.6% vs. 15.8%; and MVI or worse, 89.1% vs. 81.6%, respectively, (P < 0.001)]. Women had significantly higher proportion of poorer visual categories than men [(blind, 8.9% vs. 7.4%, SVI or worse, 21.9% vs. 20.3% and MVI or worse 87.6 vs. 84.7%) (P < 0.001)].Conclusion: The institutions primarily provided surgery to patients with maximum need: too poor to pay, low visual acuity, and women. Similar data from all service providers of a region can help estimate the proposed "equitable cataract surgical rate": the proportion of patients operated with maximum need among those operated in a year. This can be used for targeting people in need. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To evaluate the factors infl uencing fi nal visual outcome aft er surgical repair of open globe injuries. Materials and Methods: The study was carried out at a tertiary referral eye care center in Central India. In this retrospective study, case records of 669 patients with open globe injuries were analyzed. Diff erent preoperative variables were correlated with the fi nal visual outcome. Exclusion criteria were patients with less than four months follow up, previous ocular surgery, presence of intraocular foreign body or endophthalmitis at the time of presentation. Using statistical tests, the prognostic factors for vision outcome following surgical repair of open globe injuries were studied. Results: Based on the Spearman's Rho correlation analysis, following factors were found to be signifi cantly associated with the fi nal visual acuity at univariate level: age (P<0.001), preoperative visual acuity (P=0.045), mode of injury (P=0.001), and time lag between the injury and surgery (P=0.003). None of the other clinical factors have statistically signifi cant correlation with fi nal visual acuity. On multivariate analysis using binary logistic regression, only age, mode of injury and the time lag between injury and surgery achieved statistically signifi cant results. Conclusion: In the current study, elapsed time between the injury and surgery, age of the patient, preoperative visual acuity and mode of injury were found to be adversely aff ecting the fi nal visual outcome. Recognizing these factors prior to surgical intervention or intraoperatively can help the surgeon in evidence-based counseling of the trauma victim and family. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]