Purpose: To investigate the impact of glaucoma-associated vision loss on quality of life and social functioning in Indians. Methods: A cross-sectional study with prospective enrollment was conducted. Participants were divided as: mild, moderate, and severe. Severity of glaucoma was stratified by the degree of binocular visual field loss in accordance with the Nelson Glaucoma Severity Scale (NGSS). The Glaucoma Quality of Life-15 (GQL-15) and a self-developed social function scale (SFS) were utilized to assess patients' wellbeing. Results: A total of 260 patients (mean ± SD age = 58.1 ± 12.01 years; 106 females) participated in the study. Univariate analyses revealed a significant relationship between final quality of life score and number of anti-glaucoma medications (P = 0.01), previous surgeries (P = 0.00), patients age (P = 0.00), patients education level (P = 0.02), and severity of glaucoma (P = 0.00). Previous surgeries (P = 0.04) and severity of glaucoma (P = 0.00) were significant predictors of GQL-15 summary score. With increasing glaucoma severity, patients noted greater difficulty with peripheral vision, glare and dark adaptation, and outdoor tasks (P < 0.0001). Severe glaucoma also impacted patients' functional performance—a significant decline was observed in sense of personal (P < 0.0001) and social wellbeing (P < 0.0001). Conclusions: Patients with advanced glaucoma report significant decline in functioning, their ability to interact in community, take care of self, and do leisure activities. Glaucoma imposes greater social burden on the elderly by impacting their sense of personal safety. Targeted visual and social rehabilitative programs are necessary to improve their wellbeing and independent functioning.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to report the analysis of reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) of nasopharyngeal (NP) samples of cornea donors dying because of causes unrelated to severe acute respiratory coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2). Methods: A retrospective analysis of all cornea donors dying from causes other than SARS-CoV-2 between August 2020 and December 2020 was performed. Informed consent was obtained from the next of kin of the deceased for RT-PCR testing from NP swabs. Rapid antigen testing from all the deceased was performed before in situ cornea excision. In addition, NP samples in viral transport media for RT-PCR were also collected for SARS-CoV-2 analysis. Corneas were released from the eye bank only after a negative RT-PCR report. Result: One hundred eighteen corneas from 59 donors were obtained by the eye bank. Eleven donors (18.64%) were positive for SARS-CoV-2 on RT-PCR testing. Six of these 11 donors had a Ct value of E gene less than 25. Conclusions: NP samples of cornea donors dying due to causes other than coronavirus disease-19 were positive for SARS-CoV-2 on RT-PCR. This implicates that donors could be having asymptomatic/undetected coronavirus disease infection. We recommend adding the routine testing of NP samples of all cornea donors in the eye banking protocol in this ongoing SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.

Multifocal intraocular lenses (IOLs) are designed to overcome the postoperative lack of accommodation by dividing the incoming light onto two or more focal points. One of these is used for distance vision, the other for near or intermediate vision. These IOLs reduce the need for spectacle correction in daily life [1]. However, good refractive outcomes and low residual astigmatism after surgery are crucial to success. Therefore, accurate biometry and good patient selection are the keys to success. this article is available in open access under Creative Common attribution-Non-Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) license, allowing to download articles and share them with others as long as they credit the authors and the publisher, but without permission to change them in any way or use them commercially