Abstract
Purpose: :
To evaluate prevalence of pterygia in the Ophthalmologic Institute "Fundación Conde de Valenciana", Mexico City.
Methods: :
We performed a retrospective study. Our source of information were the files of the first contact population who came to the institute between 2004-2005. We studied the following parameters: age, gender, length of the pterygia, ocupation, localization of the pterygia, afected eye, and if it was a recurrent pterygia.Statistical analysis: Descriptive statistics with average and percentage
Results: :
The prevalence was 0.36%, we had 100 patients with pterygium in the right eye (34.1%), 65 patients with pterygium in the left eye (22.2%), and 128 patients with pterygia in both eyes (43.7%). The mean age was 49.4 years with a range of 18-86 years. The male population: 39 (35.8%) had the right eye affected, 25 (22.9%) had the left eye affected, and 45 (41.3%) had both eyes affected, the female population: 61(33.2%) had the right eye affected, 40 (21.7%) had the left eye affected, and 83 (45.1%) had both eyes affected. Nasal pterygia in the right eye was found in 162 patients (56.3%), nasal pterygia in the left eye was found in 112 patients (38.9%), temporal pterygia in the right eye was found in 10 patients (3.5%) and temporal pterygia in the left eye was found in 4 patients (1.4%). Recurrent pterygia was found in the right eye in 11 patients (3.8%) and in the left eye in 13 patients (4.5%). About the ocupation, 201 patients had indoor activities (83.1%) and 41 patients had outdoor activities (16.9%). The pterygia lenght was found to be: nasal pterygia in the right eye 1.65 mm with a confidence interval (CI) 1.51-1.79 mm, nasal pterygia in the left eye 1.57 mm with a CI 1.42- 1.72 mm, temporal pterygia in the right eye 1.93mm with CI 1.49- 2.38 mm, temporal pterygia in the left eye 1.86 mm with a CI 1.34-2.37 mm.
Conclusions: :
The relevance of this study lays on the statistical data which was not available in our institute, and this research can be used for further studies in Mexico and the countries that have mexican population. The prevalence of pterygia in our institute is smaller than the one we would expect, the literature reports a prevalence of more than 10% in our latitude.