Pterygium excision with application of Mitomycin-C in Enugu, Nigeria

Abstract

Aim: To evaluate the usefulness of mitomycin-C as it relates to modern techniques in the prevention and treatment of recurrent pterygium. Patients and Methods: Patients with pterygium and recurrent pterygium were enrolled. Patients' personal data including age, sex and surgical history were noted. The exclusion criteria applied were failure to comply with at least 6 months of follow-up, and patients whose primary surgeries were performed in centres not included in the study. Included also was a retrospective study of patients who had pterygium excisions with the same surgical technique but without application of any adjuvant. Results: A total of 28 patients satisfied the inclusion criteria. Eighteen of them had surgery for the first time and 15 had re-surgery after initial excision with 5-fluorouracil. A total of 33 eyes were operated upon as 5 of the patients had surgery in both eyes. The recurrence rate was 12.0%. For comparative analysis, 32 patients were studied retrospectively with recurrence noted in 20 (62.5%) of them. Conclusion: The rate of recurrence in this study was found to be low with application of low dose mitomycin-C during bare sclera pterygium excision. Without any application, recurrence rate was observed to be as high as 62.5%. This procedure has been found to be simple, affordable and effective.

Keywords

• recurrent pterygium
• prevention
• treatment
• mitomycin-c