Skip to main content
The British Journal of Ophthalmology logoLink to The British Journal of Ophthalmology
. 1997 Jul;81(7):578–580. doi: 10.1136/bjo.81.7.578

A clinic based survey of blindness and eye disease in Cambodia

I Thomson 1
PMCID: PMC1722243  PMID: 9290373

Abstract

AIMS—To survey the spectrum of eye disease presenting to rural eye clinics in Cambodia.
METHODS—A total of 1381 patients seen consecutively at 13 eye clinics were examined and the findings recorded.
RESULTS—231 (16.7%) were bilaterally blind (visual acuity <3/60 in both eyes); 263 (19%) were unilaterally blind, and 169 (12%) had low vision (visual acuity <6/18 in the better eye). Cataract was the commonest cause of visual loss in all three categories and was responsible respectively in 69%, 40%, and 55% of each group. Trachoma was diagnosed in 13% of patients. Thirty three of them needed lid surgery for trichiasis.
CONCLUSION—With the difficult practical and political situation in Cambodia there seems little prospect of making substantial inroads into the backlog of avoidable blindness in the near future.



Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (98.6 KB).

Figure 1  .

Figure 1  

Major causes of low vision.

Figure 2  .

Figure 2  

Causes of blindness in children.

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Faal H., Minassian D., Sowa S., Foster A. National survey of blindness and low vision in The Gambia: results. Br J Ophthalmol. 1989 Feb;73(2):82–87. doi: 10.1136/bjo.73.2.82. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Potter A. R. Causes of blindness and visual handicap in the Central African Republic. Br J Ophthalmol. 1991 Jun;75(6):326–328. doi: 10.1136/bjo.75.6.326. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Thomson I. M., Chumbley L. C. Eye disease in the West Bank and Gaza strip. Br J Ophthalmol. 1984 Aug;68(8):598–602. doi: 10.1136/bjo.68.8.598. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from The British Journal of Ophthalmology are provided here courtesy of BMJ Publishing Group

RESOURCES