Study of Tear Film Function in Patient Having Uniocular Pterygium

Background:

A pterygium (from the Greek, pterygos, ”little wing”) is a wing-shaped, vascular, fleshy growth that originates on the conjunctiva and that can spread to the corneal limbus and beyond. Pterygium commonly presents with dry eye symptoms, including redness, irritation, and blurred vision.Dry eye syndrome is characterized by ocular irritation and visual disturbance resulting from alterations of the tear film and ocular surface.

Methods:

Te aim of this observational (analytical) study was to evaluate the precorneal tear film function in eyes with pterygium. The study was conducted in the outpatient department of Ophthalmology at Sir Salimullah Medical College & Mitford Hospital (MH) during the period from January 2020 to July 2021. Sampling technique was purposive and sample size was 100. 50 eyes with unilateral pterygium (Group A) was compared with the contralateral eyes without pterygium (Group B) to analyze the tear film abnormalities and also compared with age and sex matched patient with out pterygium. Data was collected from preformed data collection sheets and analyzed by SPSS computer program.

Results:

This study shows the average age was 39.80±8.89 years in group A and 42.68±10.77 in group B. Among (50) patients of group A, 38% were male and 62% were female. On the other hand among (50) patients of group B, 44% were male and 56% were female. Maximum number of pterygium patients were redness 57 (63.33%), followed by cosmoses 49 (54.44%), grittiness 35 (38.89%). Schirmer test level were lower level in group A than group B which was 8.3±3.57 mm vs 11.70±2.08 mm respectively. Tear Film Break Up Time(TBUT) were lower level in group A than group B which was 9.60±2.53 seconds vs 12.26±0.94 seconds respectively. Analysis revealed that the difference was statistically significantly between two groups (P<0.05).

Conclusion:

This study revealed significant abnormalities in Schirmer test and Tear Film Break Up Time(TBUT) test in the eyes with pterygium. Tear film abnormalities can result in dry eye syndrome, potentially leading to serious vision complications. Therefore, the TBUT test may serve as a useful initial screening tool in outpatient settings to identify tear film instability in patients with pterygium.