Prospective Study to Observe Refractive Error Changes Following Primary Pterygium Excision with Autologous Stem Cell Grafting Placed By Suture.

Introduction: Pterygium, derived from Pterygion (ancient Greek word means wing) is a slow growing proliferation of wing shaped common ocular surface lesion originating in the limbal conjunctiva within the horizontal palpebral fissure with progressive involvement of the cornea. Aims: To observe refractive error changes following primary pterygium excision and autologous stem cell grafting placed by suture. Materials and methods: The present study was an Institution based, longitudinal, observational, prospective study. This Study was conducted 9 month, between January 2019 and September 2019 at Outdoor and indoor of Department of North Bengal Medical College and Hospital. Total 50 patients were included in this study. Result: Pre-operative, postoperative DAY1, DAY7 and DAY30 visual acuity distribution were analysed statistically. Mean pre-operative visual acuity of the study subjects were 11.04 (sd =3.98). Whereas mean postoperative visual acuity were 10.740 (sd =3.78), 9.600(sd=3.48) and 7.80 (sd=2.48) respectively for DAY1, DAY7 and DAY30. Visual acuity significantly improved DAY7 (P=0.001, mean difference=1.44) and DAY30 (p=0.001, mean difference =3.24). There was no statistically significant improvement of visual acuity on DAY1 post-operative period (p= 0.16) but postoperative DAY30 visual acuity improvement was highly significant. Conclusion: Pterygium has direct impact on visual acuity, horizontal and vertical keratometric reading. There was no improvement of visual acuity on DAY1 post-operative period but post-operative DAY30 visual acuity improvement was highly significant. Both K1 and K2 value changed following operation. Mostly values were changed after 7th post-operative day. K1 values were changed more in compare to K2 values. Though required spherical glass power changes were not observed but cylindrical glass power changes were noted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]