Specialist Warns Cataract Patients Against Couchers

A consultant
ophthalmic surgeon, Dr Akinwale Akinfe in Ogun State, has warned Nigerians with cataract to desist from patronising couchers or risk eventual blindness.
Akinfe told newsmen yesterday in Ilese-Ijebu, Ogun State, that couching, a practice more common in the northern parts of the country did not compare favourably with modern cataract surgery.
He said that couching wast largely unsuccessful technique with abysmal outcomes, resulting in complications such as secondary glaucoma, hyphaema and optic atrophy.
“Couching is a traditional cataract surgery peculiar to the rural areas, and a crude way of eliminating cataract by using corrosive objects to push the cataract into the eye.
“When complications set in, you then see most patients running back to the orthodox hospitals for solutions that would have been avoidable.
“You see most of them with severe inflammatory conditions like red eye with pus discharge or abscess which can be fatal, if cerebral in nature.
“Research has shown that the number of successful couching procedures compared with successful cataract surgeries is remarkably low.
“Therefore, the complications outweigh the possible benefits and as such couching is not advised as a method of treatment for cataracts,’’ he explained.
Akinfe urged government to help stop couching, adding that the poor socio-economic status of most Nigerians accounted for increased blindness rate as most people could not afford basic eye care.
He said that the best way to care for the eye was to avoid putting anything harmful into the eye in the form of traditional eye medications.
“Communities should reject the activities of couchers and people should try to go for yearly eye check-ups with an ophthalmologist, who is trained to treat eye diseases,’’ he urged.