Background:Onchocerciasis (river blindness) is a major cause of bilateral blindness with devastating socioeconomic consequences. Since Nigeria is the most heavily onchocerciasis endemic country in the world, the information on people’s knowledge about this disease is significant. This could influence their response to current preventive measures of the African Programme for Onchocerciasis Control.Aim:This study was designed to estimate the level of knowledge and attitudes of rural/semi-urban communities in Ife North Local Government Area of Osun State toward onchocerciasis.Materials and Methods:Cluster random sampling was used to select 500 adults for the study. Semi-structured questionnaires were administered to subjects. Data on knowledge of the local name, cause, mode of transmission, manifestation, severity, treatment, and prevention of onchocerciasis were collected and analysed. Statistical analysis included frequency distribution of the responses and a Chi-square test for comparison of variables with the P value for statistical significance set at 0.05.Results:Onchocerciasis was well known by its local name among 458 (91.6%) of the respondents. Only seven (1.4%) knew that it affects both the eyes and skin. The cause was commonly attributed to impure blood by 114 (22.8%), whereas transmission was thought to be through fomites by 161 (32.2%). Only 12 (2.4%) respondents attributed the disease to blackfly bites. The level of education and the association of onchocerciasis with a river were significantly associated (P = 0.001). Subcutaneous nodules were felt to contain water (85.4%), baby worms (3.2%), and fat (0.6%). There was a negative attitude toward sufferers of the disease.Conclusion:Adequate information transfer in simple local dialect by trained personnel to the communities at risk of onchocerciasis is essential for better uptake of all aspects of the onchocerciasis control programme.

Objective To describe the post-operative complications reported in patients who had trabeculectomy with and without antimetabolite in UCH, Ibadan between 1999 and 2003 and the success rate achieved in term of the post-operative intraocular pressure (IOP). Methods A retrospective study of the records of glaucoma patients who had trabeculectomy between 1999 and 2003 and had follow-up in UCH Ibadan eye clinic for a minimum of 1 year was carried out. Results Seventy-six out of 171 eyes that had trabeculectomy during the period were reviewed. Mean age of patients was 49.4 years. The mean preoperative IOP was 31.8 mm Hg. Success rate of 79.4% was achieved in term of IOP control at a year of follow-up. The most frequent early post-operative complication was shallow AC (13 eyes; 17.1%) while late complication was elevated IOP (21 eyes; 27.6%). Others were encapsulated bleb 7.9% and hyphema 3.9%. There was no significant difference in the complication rate in those who had intraoperative antimetabolite (5-fluorouracil) when compared with those operated without antimetabolite. Conclusion Guarded filtration surgery is effective in controlling IOP. Most of the complications noted were transient and not visually threatening.

SUMMARYObjective: The aim of this study was to determine the visual outcome of patients who had manual small incision cataract surgery in a high volume secondary eye hospital in southwestern Nigeria, and to identify reasons for poor outcome.Methodology: This is an observational descriptive, longitudinal study of consecutive patients undergoing cataract surgery at St Mary's Catholic Eye Hospital, Ago Iwoye (SMEH) Nigeria conducted between May and October 2007. A total of 146 patients who presented to the hospital and met the inclusion criteria were recruited for the study. Patients were examined preoperatively, 1st day and 8th week post-operatively. Results were analyzed using the SPSS statistical software. Significant association was taken at 95% confidence interval i.e. < 0.05. Results:A total of 146 patients who met the inclusion criteria were studied. The mean age was 65.3±10.04 years; and the male to female ratio was 1.4:1. Preoperatively, 110 patients (75.3%) were blind in the operated eye, while 33 patients (22.6%) were blind in both eyes at presentation. At 1 day st post-operatively, 17 patients (11.6%) had pinhole visual acuity of 6/6-6/18. Out of 137 patients that had refraction, 114 patients (83.2%) had a visual acuity of 6/6-6/18. The number of blind patients also reduced from 33 (22.6%) to 1(0.7%). Uncorrected refractive error was the commonest cause of poor vision post-operatively. Conclusion:This study demonstrates that good results can be obtained with small incision cataract surgery with intraocular lens implantation in the developing world. Increasing cataract surgery with IOL implantation should reduce the number of eyes with poor functional vision after cataract surgery.

Background The use of conjunctiva autograft, adjunct antimetabolite therapy has been shown to be effective in preventing pterygium recurrence. Objective To compare 5 fluorouracil (5-FU) to conjunctival autograft in the treatment of large, fleshy pterygium. Methods A randomised controlled prospective study of outcome of pterygium treatment using 5-FU as adjuvant treatment compared to conjunctiva autograft. Thirty-five eyes with large pterygium treated with bare sclera conjunctival excision plus 5-FU were compared with 33 eyes treated with excision and conjunctival autograft alone. Results Post-operative pterygium recurrence was observed in four (11.4%) eyes treated with 5-FU and 4 (12.1%) eyes treated with conjunctiva autograft (P40.05). The post-operative complications included, granuloma formation 11.4% for 5-FU and 3.0% for autograft and conjunctival discharge 5.7% for 5-FU group only. Conclusion 5-FU is marginally superior to conjunctival autograft in the prevention of pterygium recurrence but neither gives a more desirable single digit recurrence rate. Randomised studies combining both conjunctival autograft and 5-FU in pterygium treatment is advocated to further explore their effect.

Introduction: Fungi are responsible for less than 2.0 % of corneal infection around the globe. Trauma to the cornea is the leading cause of fungal keratitis especially with history of corneal trauma with vegetable or organic matter. Because of the dearth of data on the aetiological agents of Keratomycosis in this hospital, this study was aimed at finding the prevalence and fungal etiological agents responsible for this condition Ibadan, Nigeria. Methods: A retrospective review of the laboratory reports of corneal scrapings of patients that presented with signs and symptoms suggestive of Keratomycosis was carried out. The scrapings were subjected to wet preparation with 10.0 % KOH, Gram staining and Giemsa staining to rule out inclusion bodies. The diagnosis of Keratomycosis was made on the basis of the recognizable and characteristic appearance of fungal hyphae and fruiting bodies under microscopy. The media with no obvious growth after 3-4 weeks of incubation were regarded as negative. Results: A total of 48 specimens from patients with suspected diagnosis of Keratomycosis were included in the analysis. The patients consisted of 42 (87.3%) males and 6 (12.5%) females. The ages at diagnosis ranged from 3 to 73 years with a mean of 36.46 years and a median of 35.5 years. The prevalence of Keratomycosis among this group of patients in this hospital was 8.4 %. Candida albicans and Fusarium spp were the fungal isolates in these patients as it occurred in 4.2 % (2/48) of them respectively. Conclusions: Corneal scarring due to trauma or infections is a major cause of monocular blindness, especially in developing countries like Nigeria. Despite the low level of Keratomycosis in this study, high index of suspicion of possible diagnosis should be giving to patients with history of trauma, tissue devitalization with topical steroids and immunocompromised immunity.