An Observation on Recurrence of Pterygium.

Lee, Eon Joo

Original Article

Journal of the Korean Ophthalmological Society 1972;13(1):31-34.
Published online January 1, 2001.

An Observation on Recurrence of Pterygium.

Eon Joo Lee

Department of Ophthalmology, School of Medicine, Ewha Womans University, Seoul, Korea.

Abstract

Many surgical procedures were employed for the removal of pterygium in the past, but no unique, satisfactory method was found for the prevention of recurrences. The author analyzed 297 cases of pterygia among 6,331 cases of ocular patients who visited the department of ophthalmology, Ewha Womans University Hospital from January 1969 to december 1970, and found the following: 1) The incidence or pterygium was 4.7%. 2) The high incidencer of pterygium were found in the 50, 30, and 40 age groups in that order. 3) There were no significant differences between sex and sides. 4) The author also tried to evaluate the efficacy of B-ray irradiations and anticancerous agent instillations in prevention of recurrence after surgery. 29 eyes were irradiated with Sr90 postoperatively resulting in 1 recurrence (3.4%). 42 eyes were treated with Mitomycin-c instillation postoperatively resulting in 1 recurrence (2.4%). So there was no significance between Sr90 irradiation group and Mitomycin-c instillation group in prevention of recurrence of pterygia statistically. But the eyes treated with either Sr90 or Mitomycin-c postoperatively, significantly showed low tendency or recurrence compared to the simple surgery.