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Recurrence and complications after 1,000 surgeries using pterygium extended removal followed by extended conjunctival
1Queensland Eye Institute, Brisbane, Australia. lawrie@tapc.net.au
Objective:
To document the recurrence rate and complication rate of pterygium extended removal followed by extended conjunctival transplant.
Design:
An open, prospective study of consecutive pterygium patients undergoing pterygium extended removal followed by extended conjunctival transplant.
Participants And Controls:
The study included 1000 consecutive patients undergoing pterygium surgery between August 2001 and September 2009.
Interventions:
All patients underwent pterygium extended removal followed by extended conjunctival transplant by the author with attempted follow-up for 1 year.
Main Outcome Measures:
Recurrence and complication rates.
Results:
Follow-up of >1 year was obtained in 99% of patients. There was 1 recurrence in the 1000 surgeries (0.1%) with 95% confidence intervals of 0.003%-0.56% (Fischer exact test). Seven patients required further surgery: 3 had graft replacements, and 1 each for recurrence, strabismus, inclusion cyst, and granuloma. One patient lost 4 lines of vision from a corneal ulcer.
Conclusions:
Pterygium extended removal followed by extended conjunctival transplant results in one of the lowest recurrence rates reported in the world's literature and an acceptable complication rate.
