Abstract
Purpose: :
Find the epidemiology of keratoconus in Mexico among adolescent population, and compare it with international literature reports. Also identify associated pathology entities and the traditional management of these patients.
Methods: :
A retrospective study was made in a Concentration Clinic of Ophthalmology, 500 charts were randomly selected from patients between 10 and 20 years old to get information about identification of the patient, gender, birthday, age, 3 principal diagnosis in the first visit, refraction under cycloplegia and visual acuity was done in both eyes. After this a statistical analysis of the information was made.
Results: :
A prevalence of keratoconus of 1.8% (n= 9) was found with a proportion of 66% (n= 6) for female and 33.3% (n= 3) in male. The mean age of presentation was 16.1 years old, 17.3 years old for men and 15.5 years old for women. The most frequent associated refractive error was compound myopic astigmatism (44.4%). The 88.8% were bilateral. Of the detected patients, 33.3% (n= 3) had penetrating keratoplasty and 55.5% (n= 5) were managed with rigid gas permeable contact lens.
Conclusions: :
Through this study we found that our statistics match with the international published statistics, concerning the early age of onset of disease and bilaterality. But contrary to reports, in our patients the female sex predominated and no other associated pathology was found. This is the first study of this type done in Mexico, as no reports have been made on adolescent population. The high percentage of corneal transplant may be due to the severity of the keratoconus, associated to the early onset of the disease. A broader study with a bigger population should be conducted. But this study sets a parameter of the Mexican epidemiology of keratoconus.
Keywords: keratoconus • astigmatism