Abstract
Purpose:
To determine the frequency of follicular conjunctivitis in a large reference institution in Mexico in a period of 5 years, and analyze its distribution by month.
Methods:
We retrospectively analyzed by a monthly distribution the medical records of patients with clinical diagnosis of follicular conjunctivitis from January 1st 2008 to December 31st 2012.
Results:
A total of 859,986 medical consultations were given at the Institution from which 8,930 were diagnosed with follicular conjunctivitis, representing the 1.03% of the total. 5,314 (59%) patients were female and 3,616 (41%) male. The median age was 44 years (range 0-97 years). Most of the patients, 8,832 (98.9%) were categorized only as acute follicular conjunctivitis. In the majority of months there was a range between 100 and 200 patients. The month with the least amount of diagnoses was November 2008 with 85 patients. The majority of reported cases occurred in August 2012, with a peak incidence of 308 cases, decreasing after two months to 190 in October 2012.
Conclusions:
There is little literature on the epidemiology of follicular conjunctivitis. Despite reports of outbreaks of the disease during some seasons of the year, our study did not demonstrated a highest frequency by month in 5 years, with exception of year 2012 that presented a peak incidence in the third trimester.
Keywords: 475 conjunctivitis •
479 cornea: clinical science