A Nepali woman shows her joy when her restored sight is revealed to her.

Project Outcomes

In 1993, there were 15,000 cataract surgeries performed in Nepal, only 1000 of which utilized intraocular lenses. Most of these 1000 modern surgeries were performed by our Co-Director, Dr. Sanduk Ruit (see Dr. Ruit), who brought microsurgery with intraocular lens technology to the region. Before this technology, cataract surgery consisted of intracapsular cataract extraction, in which the entire lens and capsule are removed from the eye and the patient is given cumbersome thick eyeglasses that provide no peripheral vision and distorted direct vision. The second and third leading etiologies of blindness after cataracts were aphakia due to the loss of these thick glasses, and failed cataract surgery (See Cataracts).

In contrast, in 2003, over 118,000 cataract surgeries were performed in Nepal and over 98 percent were done with microsurgery and lens implants. Nepal is the only country in the Himalayan region performing more cataract surgery than the annual rate of new cataract blindness. An estimated 60,000 Nepalese lose sight to cataracts annually, and there is a backlog of 200,000 people blind from cataracts. The Himalayan Cataract Project, and our home base, the Tilganga Eye Centre, have been highly influential in the dramatic improvement in eye care in Nepal since 1994.

Our programs in Tibet, China, Bhutan, Sikkim, India, West Bengal, and Pakistan are also rapidly improving eye care by establishing a sustainable eye care infrastructure. Through cataract eye camps, the HCP has directly restored sight to tens of thousands of blind people in the region. But the project’s impact goes much further because the HCP’s focus has been on training indigenous surgeons to perform modern cataract surgery. The number of surgeries performed by the doctors trained by the HCP far exceeds the number performed directly by project coordinators.