Pterygium Conjunctival Autograft

Abstract

Background: The treatment of ocular pterygium overtime has been subjected to the development and application of various new strategies towards simpler, quicker, and more comfortable surgical procedures that have foster the development suture-less technique with conjunctival autograft to reduce recurrent rate. Aims: To evaluate the long-term follow-up of recurrent rate and immediate complication in primary pterygium excision with Inferior Limbal Conjunctival Autograft (ILCA) a 5 years follow-up in a Tertiary Ophthalmic Centre. Materials and Methods: The medical record of 68 patients (80 eyes) who underwent pterygium excision and free ILCA for primary nasal pterygium who completed the 5 years follow-up were retrospectively reviewed for recurrence and immediate postoperative complication, of these 59 patients met the criteria. Result: In this study, 59 patients (71 eyes) completed the 5 years follow-up that account for 86.8%, 9 patients defaulted accounting for 13.2%. Two (3.4%) out of the 59 patients had recurrence, one male at 3 months and a female at 2 months that were 21 and 40 years old, respectively. The early complication that was seen in this study was mild conjunctival hyperemia secondary to suture irritation. Conclusions: After a long follow-up period for ILCA for primary pterygium surgery, the success of conjunctival autograft was high with little or no complication seen, this may be related to a significant learning curve or differing surgical techniques for this procedure. The greatest risk factors for recurrence were young age and type of pterygium.