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Pterygium in young members of one family
1Department of Ophthalmology, King Khaled Eye Specialist Hospital, Riyadh 11462, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. kkeshres@awalnet.net.sa
Purpose:
To report a family with aggressive, early-onset pterygium.
Methods:
We examined all living relatives (with one exception) of a Saudi Arabian family and found three members with pterygium (onset occurred when the patients were at early 20s, 6, and 4 years of age).
Results:
Multiple attempts at surgical removal, even in conjunction with application of topical mitomycin C and use of conjunctival autograft, failed to prevent recurrent pterygium, which advanced across the visual axis and produced profound visual disability in the three cases.
Conclusion:
Contrary to previously published reports of familial pterygium, two of the three cases had childhood age at onset and all three had an aggressive clinical course after the onset of recurrent pterygium after surgical resection; genetic identification may be beneficial.