Abstract:Introduction: Pterygium is a triangular encroachment of the vascularised granulation tissue covered by conjunctiva in the interpalpebral area. It is a degenerative condition of conjunctiva. This is a prospective and comparative study to assess the outcome of the pterygium surgery by conjunctival limbal autograft with suture and autologous blood.
Material and Methods: A prospective and comparative study of patients with primary pterygium attending ophthalmology outpatient department in our tertiary care hospital. Patients are divided into two groups randomly.
Group 1: Conjunctival limbal autograft with suture
Group 2: Conjunctival limbal autograft with autologous blood
Patients were followed up on day 1, day 7, 1 month, 3 months and 6 months postoperatively. On each visit graft retraction, graft displacement, inflammatory reaction, recurrence of pterygium and comfort of the patient were noted. All two groups were compared in terms of surgical time, postoperative discomfort and recurrence.
Results: The age was comparable between the groups. The Conjunctival limbal autograft with suture had a mean age of 45.38±11.23 years and conjunctival limbal autograft with autologous blood group had a mean age of 43.38±8.09 years. The surgical time was highest among Group 1. Conjunctival limbal autograft with suture had a mean surgical time of 43.06±2.11 minutes and conjunctival limbal autograft with autologous blood group had a mean surgical time of 29.50±2.68 minutes. Among conjunctival limbal autograft with suture recurrence was present among 6.3% on POD 180.
Conclusion: Concluding the study of comparison between two techniques of pterygium surgery, autologous blood procedure is time and cost effective with less postoperative discomfort. No recurrence was found in the autologous group in comparison to conjunctival limbal autograft with sutures. However beneficial the autologous blood procedure is, the complication of postoperative graft displacement arises, which is not found in conjunctival limbal autograft with sutures.
