CLINICAL PROFILE OF PATIENTS OF EPISCLERITIS - A HOSPITAL BASED STUDY, JHANSI

Purpose: To determine the clinical profile of patients of Episcleritis presenting to our tertiary care hospital. Methods: This was a hospital based observational study that included 100 participantspresented at the Outpatient Department of ophthalmology in our hospital with various complaints and who werediagnosed as having episcleritis. After taking written consent from the patients, all the relevant information of the cases and detailed clinical history was taken. All the standard ocular and systemic examination was performed for every patient. The diagnosis of episcleritis was made based on the slit lamp examination findings. Frequency and proportions were used in the descriptive analysis for categorical variables. The data was processed, the coding and calculation was done using MS Excel office version 2021. Results: Age of patients in our study ranged from 18 to 60 years. Maximum cases (42%) of episcleritis were in the age group of 41 to 50 years.There was male predominance (52%) in our study with majority of cases being males. Most common presenting symptom seen was redness in 89% patients, followed by ocular pain in 64%, followed by watering in 56%, discomfort in the eyes in 48 % patients and other symptomsseen were burning sensation in the eyes, foreign body sensation and photophobia in 37%, 28%, and 12 % cases respectively. Conclusion: We can infer from our study that Episcleritisis a common, acute and self- limiting disease. Cases of Episcleritis were found more commonly in the age group between 41 to 50years and in males in our study. Careful examination of the eye with slit lamp along with history taking in detail is helpful in diagnosing the cases of episcleritis.