A Boost to Global Eye Care

The Sagarmatha Choudhary Eye Hospital is situated in Lahan, a small town in the densely populated, flat and fertile Terai region in Southeast Nepal, 450 km by road from the capital Kathmandu. This eye hospital has gained worldwide reputation, partly due to the high amount of cataract surgeries performed per year and the fact that it is a major training centre for ophthalmologists and staff. The hospital has been supported by Christian Blind Mission (CBM) since 1982. Today, it serves as a model eye hospital and is considered one of the finest CBM-supported projects in Asia.

For over 20 years, a firm basis for this achievement has been built by CBM ophthalmologist Dr. Albrecht Hennig, Programme Director of Sagarmatha Choudhary Eye Hospital. The hospital has grown to a 410-bed eye hospital with nine ophthalmologists and more than 100 medical and non-medical staff. In Lahan, affordable high-quality eye care services are provided to adults and children with visual loss as well as for incurably blind persons. In addition, regular outreach trips are performed. There are three Satellite Eye Hospitals and temporary camps in remote areas connected to Sagarmatha Choudhary Eye Hospital.

People with visual problems travel to Lahan from Nepal and northern states of India. Some patients travel 3 to 4 days to receive treatment. The great need becomes obvious when last year’s figures are considered. Almost 180,000 outpatients were seen and treated and about 55,000 eye operations performed, among them nearly 49,000 cataract operations. Lahan, therefore, shares a major part of CBM’s favourable balance of 5 million cataract operations.
Nearly all cataract operations are performed with a sutureless technique and implantation of an intraocular lens. This technique, with a self-sealing wound, provides a rapid visual recovery and a return to normal life the day after surgery.

A special variety of sutureless cataract surgery, the “Fishhook Technique” was developed at Sagarmatha Choudhary Eye Hospital in 1997. Dr. Hennig remarked, “Interestingly, since sutureless cataract surgery became the routine procedure at Lahan, the number of cataract operations increased more than three times in the following five years. This suggests we must be doing something which patients like!”

Besides the patients, numerous ophthalmologists approve of the new technique. From 1997 through October 2005, more than 280,000 sutureless cataract surgeries have been performed in Lahan by the Fishhook Technique and many more in other eye centres around the world, proving this technique as suitable for high-volume, low-cost cataract surgery that produces good results. Thus, the technique is perfect for developing countries and brings CBM a major step closer to VISION 2020’s aim to eliminate avoidable blindness by the year 2020.

Read more: Fields of Work - Prevention of Blindness

For further information on the Lahan project, refer to
Sagarmatha Choudhary Eye Hospital’s website

The VISION 2020 The Right to Sight website contains further information on the international campaign.
VISION 2020

Information on operation techniques are included in the Community Eye Health Journal, which is supported by CBM. In issue no. 48 2003, Dr. Albrecht Hennig, Programme Director of Sagarmatha Choudhary Eye Hospital, Lahan, writes about Sutureless Non-Phaco Cataract Surgery.
JCEH Journal No. 48

The World Health Organization (WHO) provides information on the monitoring of cataract outcome with the Manual Tallysheet System.