Mohammad Saleem, Lal Mohammad, Zia ul Islam.
Pterygium - An Epidemiological study.
Pak J Ophthalmol Jan ;20(1):17-22.

A prospective study on the epidemiology of pterygium was done in the department of Ophthalmology, D.H.Q. Teaching Hospital, D. I. Khan from 1st August 2001 to 31st July 2002. Each patient had a complete ophthalmological examination and all information were recorded in a specially designed proforma. In our study we examined 120 patients with 170 pterygia. 95 (79.16%) patients were male, while 25 (20.84%) were females. Male to female ratio was 3.8:1. Majority of patients [3.3 (27.5%)] presented between 31 and 40 years of age. The age range was 21 to 75 years and average age was 43 years. The most common complaint at the time of presentation was recurrent soreness (.59 patients - 49.16%) of the eyes. The vast majority of patients were outdoor workers (93 patients-77.5%) with a positive history of U-V rays exposure. 84(70%) patients had only single nasal pterygium, while 36(30%) patients had two or more pterygia at the time of presentation. Out of 170 pterygia 122 (71.77%) were actively growing, red and fleshy, while 48 (28.23%) were slow growing., stationary or atrophic. In 145 (8.5.29%) cases pterygia were fully developed at the time of presentation, while 25 (14.71 %) were just covering the limbus. Out of 170 pterygia, 148 (87.05%) were located on the nasal side of the cornea and 22 (12.95%) were. temporally located. None of the temporal pterygia was without the presence of its nasal counterpart.

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