A COMPARATIVE PROSPECTIVE STUDY OF ASTIGMATISM BEFORE AND AFTER PTERYGIUM EXCISION IN A TERTIARY CARE CENTRE

Objective: The objective of this study is to evaluate the change in corneal refractive status before and after Pterygium excision. Methodology: 31 patients who underwent Pterygium excision were evaluated pre-operatively and post-operatively for the assessment of astigmatic changes. All the patients having Pterygium more than grade II underwent Pterygium excision with conjunctival autografting. Pre-operative and post- operative assessment of astigmatism was done by objective refraction with Streak Retinoscope. Further, the subjective refraction was calculated and then keratometry was done by using manual Bausch & Lomb Keratometer. Post-operative astigmatism was measured after 1 week, 1month and 3months, to estimate how much astigmatism improvises withtime. Result:All patients who underwent Pterygium excision were analyzed retrospectively, the mean age was 39.04 ± 9.91 years which ranged from 19-60 years. 70.9% cases were having grade II Pterygium, 25.8% patients were having grade III Pterygium and only one case had grade IV Pterygium. The mean preop astigmatism in grade II Pterygium was 1.10 ± 0.7, in grade III Pterygium it was 1.5 ± 1 and in grade IV it was 6. The post op mean astigmatism in grade II Pterygium was 0.21, in grade III it was 0.4 and in grade IV it was 1. There was good correlation between grade of Pterygium and astigmatism with r-0.528. In all the grades of Pterygium the differences between the preoperative astigmatism and postoperative astigmatismwas clinically significant with p value 0.001. Conclusion: In cases of Pterygium, early intervention in the form of Pterygium excision with conjunctival autograft effectively reduces the amount of astigmatism, thus reducing the amount of refractive cylinder and so leads to an improvement in visual acuity.