Visually debilitating pterygium: surgical and contact lens treatment

We present the management of a patient with large pterygia complicated by irregular astigmatism and corneal opacities. Visual rehabilitation required both surgical excision and contact lens fitting.

We examined a 30-year-old man with hand motion vision from a large pterygium overgrowing his right cornea. Histopathology was consistent with pterygium. During the first few postoperative weeks, his uncorrected visual acuity improved to 20/60, and manifest refraction yielded no further improvement. In the subsequent months, there were increasing anterior stromal corneal opacities, and the refraction became hyperopic to a variable degree.

Best corrected visual acuity was 20/70-20/100. Axial length was 22.64 +/- 0.07 mm. Computerized corneal topography 6 months postoperative was similar to the preoperative topography and revealed irregular and asymmetric astigmatism, with marked variation of the central corneal dioptric power. Slit lamp biomicroscopy suggested that the corneal opacities were responsible for the patient's decreased acuity; however, contact lens fitting provided 20/30 vision with a rigid gas permeable contact lens.

The improved vision with contact lens therapy strongly suggested that the irregular and asymmetric astigmatism were more visually significant than the corneal opacities.