Clinical and demographic review of corneal ulcers in University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital

Abstract

Background: Corneal ulceration is one of the major causes of avoidable blindness and visual impairment globally. Objectives: The aim of this study was to analyze clinical and demographic data of corneal ulcers at the Department of Ophthalmology, University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH), Ilorin, Kwara state between 2017 and 2021. Methods: A retrospective survey of all cases of corneal ulcer under review period was done. Demographic and clinical data were retrieved from hospital records and analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20. Results: A total of 92 cases were reviewed, consisting of 66 males, majority (76.1%) are married, and traders and artisan accounted for 54.3%. The age ranges from 6 months to 78 years with 41.2 years as average. The major identified risk factors were trauma (16.3%) and harmful traditional medications (13%). Visual acuity (VA) in 82.6% of the patients at presentation was <3/60 to no perception of light (NPL), while 10.9% presented with VA of 6/6 to 6/18. The most dominant causes of corneal ulcers were microbial keratitis (72.8%) and hypopyon keratitis (12.5%). Time of onset to presentation was within 1 week in 33 patients (35.9%), 29 patients (31.5%) after a week, while others presented over a month. After treatment, VA was 69.5% (<3/60–NPL), 21.7% (6/6–6/18), and 8.7% (6/18–3/60). Five patients had evisceration, two out of which were auto-evisceration. Conclusion: Ocular trauma was the most common risk factor with microbial keratitis as the most dominant cause. Poor treatment outcome resulted from late presentation, use of herbal, self and over-the-counter medications. Appropriate health promotion activities need to be conducted to address the identified risk factors at all levels of care.