Abstract
Purpose :
There has been an upsurge of retinal diseases in the developing world which may have devastating ocular consequences. Specialized training and expert management is a mainstay for prompt recognition and treatment. A previous survey of vitreoretinal diseases prior to sub-specialization revealed age-related degeneration and maculopathies as the most common retinal diseases. Access to trained vitreoretinal surgeons and the availability of optical coherence tomography scan, fundus camera, and vitrectomy machine now exist. We performed a retrospective study to look at the prevalence and impact of subspecialty in these vitreoretinal diseases.
Methods :
496 patients who were seen at the retinal services of a large university hospital in south-west Nigeria between June 2019 and May 2021 were included. The demographic data of the patients such as the age, sex, and occupation were retrieved from the patient notes while their geographic domicile was noted. The retinal diagnosis, best corrected visual acuity at presentation, ocular & systemic co-morbidities, and investigative & treatment modalities were analyzed. Statistical analysis was done using chi-square and ANOVA.
Results :
The mean age was 51.3 years (SD: 18.7) with an age range of 2-91 years. 256 were males and 240 were females. The relationship between age and retinal disease was significant (p= 0.001), as was the relationship between sex and retinal disease (p=0.005). 90 patients (18.1%) had a best corrected visual acuity of <6/60 in the in the better eye. Retinal detachment was the most common retinal diagnosis present in 122 patients (24.7%) and diabetic retinopathy in 53 patients (10.7%). Treatment modalities include 84 intravitreal antivascular endothelial injection (16.9%), 52 scleral buckling surgery (10.5%), and 76 pars plana vitrectomy (15.3%) patients and was not significant for retinal diagnosis (p=0.151). Optical coherence tomography (18.5%) and ocular B-scan (14.1%) were the most utilized investigation in retinal diagnosis.
Conclusions :
The findings show a change in the trend of retinal disease due to improved access to vitroretinal care with subspecialization. Retinal detachments are now the most common retinal disease. Optical coherence tomography is an impactful tool in the diagnosis of retinal diseases with intravitreal antivascular endothelial injections being the most prevalent treatment modality.
This abstract was presented at the 2024 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Seattle, WA, May 5-9, 2024.