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Perched on the greatest heights of the Himalayas Nepal is a small landlocked country, placed between Tibet and India. Cataract is the main cause of blindness in the Nepalese population. On the other hand, very few of us realize that this poor country has been able to develop an interesting, specific and relatively good eye care service system. The aim of this study is the complete analysis of this subject in regard to its structure, funding and training of medical personnel.

Millions of people worldwide are blind from mature cataracts. The developing countries cannot afford expensive modern technologies to treat these cases. A cost effective, fast, machine independent procedure is necessary The purpose of this study is to describe such a technique, little known in Poland--manual small incision cataract surgery (SICS), where the whole nucleus is removed through a self-sealing sclero-corneal tunnel. Within the last several years SICS has become the main way of cataract removal in underserved populations of Asia, with Nepal as an example. Thus, the developing countries have developed a cost effective alternative to phacoemulsification with a very good clinical outcome.