Severe visual impairing pterygia in ten adult eyes in Osun State, Nigeria
Keywords:
Severe visual impairment, Blindness, Pterygium, South-Western NigeriaAbstract
Background: Pterygium is described as a wedge-shaped fibrovascular, nonmalignant growth of the conjunctiva. It could extend across the limbus. Severe
visual impairment and blinding of eyes by pterygia are not seen often in
hospitals.
Methods: A community outreach was conducted within Osun State, South
Western Nigeria from February to April 2023. Eight adult patients were seen
with severe visually impairing pterygia. They all had pterygial excision using
bare sclera technique with 50mg/ml of 5 fluorouracil (5-FU) cotton bud dab
Results: Eight patients aged 40years and above had severe visually impairing
pterygia, two were bilaterally blind making 10 eyes. Six (75%) out of the eight
were males while 2 (25%) were females. They all had stages 3 to 4 pterygium, 2
eyes (20%) were stage 3 while the remaining 8eyes (80%) were stage 4.
Conclusion: Severe visually impairing pterygium is a cause of avoidable
blindness that is seen in our community. There is need for community awareness
and education on this needless cause of blindness
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