Ocular Co-morbidity in Patients with Refractive Errors in Nigeria

Abstract

Purpose: To d etermine the p attern and p revalence of other ocu lar p roblems seen in p atients with refractive errors in a Nigerian teaching hosp ital. Methods: A retrosp ective hosp ital-based review of all consecu tive p atients who p resented with signs and symp toms of refractive errors at the Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hosp itals Comp lex between 1st Janu ary 2007 and 31 Au gu st 2007. st Patients who had a d iagnosis of refractive error and su bsequ ently had d etailed eye examination were inclu d ed in this stu d y. Data was retrieved from the p atients’ clinical record s and analyzed with SPSS version 15. Results: Ou t of 724 new p atients seen within the stu d y p eriod , 235 had refractive errors (93 males and 142 females). Patients’ ages ranged between 7 and 74 years with a mean of 30.5+/ - 4.6 years. In more than half 54%) of the p atients, associated ocu lar co-morbid ities were d ocumented . The vision-imp airing d iseases d ocumented morbid ities in 56 (44.1) p atients were cataract 26 (20.5%), glau coma 20 (15.8%), d iabetic macu lop athy 3 (2.7%), amblyop ia, corneal op acities and CMV retinitis. Non vision-imp airing d isord ersd ocumented were conju nctivitis, 49 (38.6%); p terygium 6 (4.7%), chalazion 5 (3.9%), hypertensive retinop athy 4 (3.1%), d ry eyes and ep iscleritis. Immatu re cataract was responsible for abou t 2/ 3 of cases with p oor corrected visu al acu ity d ocumented in a large p rop ortion of the p atients 26 (11.1%). Conclusion: Patients with refractive errors need d etailed ocu lar examination for early d etection of other comorbid ities which may significantly affect vision and lead to avoid able blind ness and visu al imp airment.

Key words: refractive errors, ocular co-morbid ity, glau coma, visu al imp airment, blind ness