BACKGROUND Cataract is the principal cause of avoidable blindness in India and throughout the world. Surgical removal of the cataractous lens remains the only effective treatment for management of cataract blindness. The success of cataract surgery is determined by best and earliest visual recovery. But the occurrence of postoperative astigmatism has become a major hurdle in achieving this goal. AIMS The study was designed to compare the amount of astigmatism following conventional extracapsular cataract extraction (ECCE) and manual small incision cataract surgery (SICS). MATERIALS AND METHODS The study was carried out in 100 eyes of 75 patients aged between 50 and 80 years admitted for cataract surgery. Out of these, 50 eyes were operated by conventional extracapsular cataract extraction and 50 eyes by manual small incision cataract surgery. The patients were followed up at 2 nd , 4 th , 6 th and 8 th weeks. At each follow-up visual acuity, refraction and acceptance and keratometry were recorded and the findings analysed for astigmatism. RESULTS In the current study, the mean (SD) astigmatism developed at the end of the 2 nd , 4 th and 6 th of follow-up was significantly lower in the SICS group as compared to the ECCE group (P<0.000). At the end of 8 weeks of follow-up, the mean (SD) astigmatism of the SICS group was 0.64±0.56 D as compared to the mean (SD) of the ECCE group of 1.39±86 D and the difference was found to be significant (p<0.014). CONCLUSION The current study concludes that manual small incision cataract surgery is a better technique to control postoperative astigmatism than conventional extracapsular cataract extraction.

BACKGROUNDChildren are affected by various eye disorders like refractive error, eye infections, and squint. Uncorrected refractive errors are a common, but avoidable problem. The presence of uncorrected refractive error in children has a considerable impact on their physical, mental, and behavioural development. Early detection and timely intervention can improve a child's potential tremendously during the formative years.

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease is a very common Disease often occurring among chronic smokers. Detection of this disease is reliably done by clinical spirometry in patients. The disease is usually under-diagnosed due to poor reporting of symptoms by the patient, difficulty in performing spirometry and under-utilization of this test. Although routine spirometry is useful in chronic smokers to help them in quitting smoking and timely intervention, it is routinely not practiced due to the resource consumed while performing the test, as it requires proper training, patient's co-operation and patience. However, COPD should be screened in pre-operative patients especially with history of smoking, to help detecting asymptomatic cases and assessment of preoperative fitness for general surgery and anaesthesia. It can avoid intra-operative and post-operative complications in patients. The physician should strongly advise the smokers to quit smoking and treat those detected cases with inhaled ipratropium, inhaled beta 2 adrenergic agonists with or without oral theophylline. Additional oral corticosteroids may be advised for 5 days, for some symptomatic severe COPD patients, before general surgery.