Comparison of pre-operative and post-operative astigmatism and visual acuity after pterygium excision followed by sutureless and gluefree conjunctival autograft

Objective: To compare change in refractive astigmatism and visual acuity following pterygium excision followed by sutureless and gluefree conjunctival autograft. Method: A prospective , non randomized , comparative and interventional case series .This study was carried out on 52 eyes of 50 patients with primary pterygium in one or both eyes .our surgical technique comprised of pterygium excision followed by sutureless and gluefree conjunctival autograft which had additional benefit of having lowest recurrence rate at present. Visual acuity and refractive astigmatism were assessed pre-operatively and post operatively on 2nd month follow up. Result: The mean age of the patient was 40.9 12.09 years .17 patients (32.69%) had grade III pterygium,12 patients each (23.07%) were of grade I and grade II and 21.15% were of grade IV. There was significant reduction in refractive astigmatism (means.d) and improvement in visual acuity (means.d) in all grades of pterygium post operatively along with recurrence of merely in 1 patient i.e. 1.92 %. Conclusion: The present study concludes that pterygium excision reduces refractive astigmatism, improves visual acuity with additional benefit of lowest recurrence rate credited to sutureless and gluefree conjunctival autograft.