Pterygium surgery with conjunctival autograft and induced astigmatism in young men

Objectives: To evaluate the results obtained from malesubjects who underwent pterygium surgery with conjunctivalautograft and to calculate the induced astigmatism.Materials and methods: Pterygium surgery with conjunctivalautograft was performed on 22 eyes of 20 subjectsdiagnosed with primary pterygium. If pterygium caused avision problem or approached the pupil level, and if surgerywas requested from the individuals for cosmetic reasons,the decision to operate was made. Patients who underwentany ocular surgery, have ocular surface disease,eyelid problems or systemic disease were not includedin the study. A complete ophthalmologic examination wasperformed before surgery, at one month following the surgery,and during the final controls. Induced astigmatismwas calculated by using refractive parameters and VectorialAnalysis Program.Results: Twenty-two eyes of 20 subjects were included inthe study. Mean age was 22.50 ± 4.15 (20-39) years. Allsubjects included in the study were male patients. Of the22 eyes, 14 were right and 8 were left eyes. In the evaluationsof visual acuity and intraocular pressure values preandpost- surgery, no statistical significance was detected(p=0.142, p=0.831). During the surgery, relapse was detectedin 4 eyes (18%) and conjunctival granuloma (9%)was detected in 2 eyes. Following the surgery, arithmeticaverage of the induced astigmatisms at 1st month was0.91±1.19 D; against-the-rule astigmatism was detectedin nearly 60% of the eyes. The subjects were followed upfor 93.59±36.47 days after the surgery.Conclusions: In primary pterygium subjects of youngage, surgery with conjunctival autograft was consideredas a preferable method due to its low number of relapseand complications, as well as absence of any adverse effecton visual acuity.Key words: Astigmatism, pterygium, young adult