Patterns of presentations at a free eye clinic in an urban state hospital

Abstract

Background: Provision of affordable eye care is one of the cardinal programs of the Osun State Government of Nigeria.
Objective: The objective of this study was to assess the pattern of eye diseases presenting in a secondary health care facility based at Osogbo the State Capital.
Materials and Methods: We reviewed the hospital records of all patients that were cared for at the eye clinic of the State Hospital, Osogbo, Osun State, Nigeria from January 2009 to December 2010.
Results: A total of 1018 patients were attended to at the eye clinic during the period of review. Mean age of these patients was 49.4 ± 23.2 years. There were 408 (40.1%) males and 610 (59.9%) females with a female-male ratio of 1.5 : 1. Most of them were traders (28.1%) and married (32.1%). Vernal conjunctivitis (21.1%), cataract (14%), glaucoma
(11.1%), and refractive errors (20.7%) were the main eye diagnoses.
Conclusion: Preventable causes of blindness were quite common among the patients. There is a need for community education to reduce the prevalence of these diseases in the general population.

Key words: Eye clinic, free, pattern, urban