[Pterygium: surgical treatment]

The surgical management of pterygium is often complicated by recurrence of disease. The goal of this study was to compare three different surgical techniques used for the treatment of pterygium.

We propose a prospective and partly retrospective study on 167 cases of pterygium 151 were primary and 16 were recurrent, treated between 1 January, 1995 and 30 June, 1998. The surgical treatment used of 3 different techniques: pterygium excision for 111 eyes, pterygium excision with conjunctival autograft for 29 eyes, pterygium excision with application of mitomycin C for 27 eyes.

Immediate results for the three kinds of treatment were good. No serious complications were noted. Long-term results show a recurrence rate of 10.3% for conjunctival autograft, 11.1% for mitomycin C application, while the pterygium excision alone had a recurrence rate of 55.9%.

This study demonstrated that conjunctival autografting and the application of mitomycin C are safe surgical techniques that reduce the probability of recurrence after surgery for pterygium. They can be recommended for young people and patients exposed to sun. Mitomycin therapy is the most appropriate treatment for these cases, because of its simplicity, lower lost and the relative lack of complication.