నైరూప్య

Profile of Pterygium Cases Seen at Tertiary Referral Hospital in the Philippines

Pius Jonas F Ocampo, Archimedes Lee D Agahan

Objective: To determine the demographic and clinical profile of pterygium cases seen at a tertiary referral hospital in the Philippines from January 2012 to October 2015.

Methods: This is a retrospective chart review. All patients were seen at the External Disease and Cornea Clinic of the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences - Philippine General Hospital (DOVS-PGH), a tertiary referral center located in Manila, Philippines. Patients’ age, gender, region of origin, current address, occupation, chief complaint, pterygium type, pterygium grade and initial treatment plan were gathered. Descriptive statistics was used for analysis of patient demographics and clinical profile.

Results: Eight hundred sixty six new patients were seen and 53% were female and 47% were male. The mean age was 46.79 +/- 23 years (range 11-82). There was female preponderance across all age groups except in the 21-30 year old group. Forty two percent of the patients worked outdoors, 30% work indoors, and 28% are unemployed. Most of the patients seen were born in Southern Tagalog, National Capital, Western Visayas, Bicol, and Eastern Visayas Region. Most of the patients had bilateral involvement (49%) and the left eye is slightly more involved in unilateral cases (26% left and 25% right). Fifteen percent of patients had bipolar pterygium and mostly involved the left eye (61% left, 27% right, 12% bilateral). Eleven percent of the total cases seen presented as recurrent pterygium. Type 2 pterygium was the most common type, seen in 56% of patients. Grade 2 pterygium was most common, seen in 48% of patients. Appearance of a fleshy mass was the most common reason for consult (91%). Fifty nine percent of patients underwent excision with conjunctival autograft as initial plan, 23% for excision with Mitomycin-C and conjunctivoplasty, 2% for initial Mitomycin C injection of pterygium and excision 1 month after and 16% of patients were for observation.

Conclusion: Pterygium continued to be a common reason for consults in our institution. Most of the pterygium patients seen were female and born in rural areas. The most common pterygium type seen is type 2. Patients working outdoors tend to have fleshy pterygium with more corneal involvement. Conjunctival autograft was the most common surgical intervention for these patients.