Abstract
Purpose:
To determine if Hispanic ethnicity serves as a risk factor for patients with a diagnosis of epiblepharon.
Methods:
This is a retrospective chart review of patients seen at a tertiary care university hospital since 2000 with an ICD-9 code 743.62 - congenital deformity of the eyelids. This is the diagnosis code used by our physicians for those patients with a diagnosis of epiblepharon. Patient ethnicity was then obtained from patient data results in electronic medical records, billing results, and chart documentation.
Results:
49 patients were identified with an ICD-9 code 743.62. Nine of these were excluded for not having a diagnosis of epiblepharon. 39 of the 40 were diagnosed with congenital, bilateral, lower eyelid epiblepharon. The other patient was an 8 year-old white female whose family had not noticed the eyelid malformation prior to age 8. Of the 40 patients 19 were Hispanic, 9 were Caucasian, 4 were Native American, 3 were Asian, 3 were African American, 1 was Asian/Caucasian, and 1 was other. Hispanics made up 47.5% of our patient population, Caucasian 22.5%, Native Americans 10%, Asians 7.5%, African Americans 7.5%, Asian/Caucasian 2.5%, and Other 2.5%
Conclusions:
Epiblepharon is an eyelid deformity that has been found to be associated with Asian ancestry and reported in many East Asian ethnicities. To our knowledge an association with Hispanic ethnicity has not been reported. In our patient population, Hispanic ethnicity was high at 47.5%. The 2010 Census Bureau estimates that 18.4% of the population under age 18 in Douglas County (includes Omaha) is Hispanic, and that 15.7% of the population under age 18 in Nebraska is of Hispanic ethnicity. These findings would indicate a higher Hispanic percentage than would be expected based on census data, and suggest an association between epiblepharon and Hispanic ethnicity.
Keywords: 526 eyelid •
463 clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: prevalence/incidence