Posters

Smarter steps for pterygium surgery

Poster Details

First Author: F.Ucar TURKEY

Co Author(s):    L. Seyrek                    

Abstract Details

Purpose:

Shorten the operation time and increase its success with small but important changes made in surgery

Setting:

Konyagoz Eye Hospital

Methods:

The data of 347 patients who underwent pterygium surgery in our clinic were evaluated retrospectively. Unlike conventional pterygium surgeries, brimonidine tartrate, which we drip before starting the operation, had minimal hemorrhage during pterygium excision and autograft intake with vasoconstriction effect. We perform pterygium excision starting from the scleral region and pulling the cornea part with the help of a forceps without using a knife. In autograft excision, we first make two incisions perpendicular to the limbus, while the other edges are intact, we create a tenonless and transparent autograft with a nice dissection. We glue the autograft with fibrin glue.

Results:

The mean age of the patients included in the study was 48.4, and the mean case duration was 5.57 minutes. 5 minutes after instillation of topical brimonidine tartrate; we observed that the surface area of vascular tissues in conjunctiva and pterygium tissues decreased by 60% with the help of photoshop and ImageJ programs, and this effect lasted for about 20 minutes. As a result of 1-year follow-up of our patients, we observed that recurrent pterygium developed in 5 patients (approximately 1.4%). No additional intraoperative and postoperative complications were observed.

Conclusions:

The brimonidine tartrate which we used before the operation, provides a comfortable working area and reduces the operation time with the conjunctival whitening effect. We think that the small changes we made in the surgical technique significantly reduced pterygium recurrence.

Financial Disclosure:

None