The Changes in Tear Film after Primary Pterygium Operation

Nam Eok Kim; Sang Soo Kim

doi:10.3341/jkos.2013.54.11.1649

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Kim and Kim: The Changes in Tear Film after Primary Pterygium Operation

Original Article

J Korean Ophthalmol Soc 2013;54(11):1649-1654.

Published online: 2 September 2013

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3341/jkos.2013.54.11.1649

The Changes in Tear Film after Primary Pterygium Operation

Nam Eok Kim, MD, Sang Soo Kim, MD

Department of Ophthalmology, Maryknoll Medical Center, Busan, Korea

Address reprint requests to Sang Soo Kim, MD, Department of Ophthalmology, Maryknoll Medical Center #121 Junggu-ro, Jung-gu, Busan 600-730, Korea, Tel: 82-51-461-2540, Fax: 82-51-462-3534, E-mail: eyerheu@hanafos.com

Received 22 March 2013 Revised 4 June 2013 Accepted 24 September 2013

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Purpose

In this study we evaluated the changes in tear film after primary pterygium operation in patients with pterygium.

Methods

We investigated 43 eyes of 42 subjects who showed successful results 3 months after pterygium operation performed by one surgeon. The changes in tear film thickness, tear break-up time (BUT), Schirmer I test, and ocular surface disease index (OSDI) were evaluated. All values were compared before and after surgery.

Results

The mean age was 58.0 ± 11.1 years (34-81 years). Preoperative tear film thickness, tear BUT, and Schirmer I test in eyes which underwent pterygium operation were 21.53 ± 5.93 μm, 4.84 ± 2.21 seconds, and 11.67 ± 6.75 mm, respectively. Three months after the operation, the respective values were 24.23 ± 4.19 μm (p < 0.05), 5.81 ± 1.89 seconds (p < 0.05), and 13.02 ± 7.54 mm (p = 0.094). Tear film thickness and BUT score increased significantly after pterygium operation. There was no statistically significant difference in Schirmer I test, before and 3 months after pterygium operation. The subjective parameter (OSDI) improved 3 months after pterygium operation (p = 0.015).

Conclusions

Pterygium operation can partially restore the tear film function into a normal state by improving tear film thickness and tear BUT after pterygium operation.

Keywords: Pterygium, Pterygium operation, Tear film function

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Figure 1.

Distribution of age at time of pterygium operation by decade.

Figure 2.

Fluorescent tear film can be visualized by Scheimpflug imaging. Pentacam system generates a color-coded pachymetry map of tear film by comparing two corneal pachymetry maps of each eye. (A) Corneal pachymetry map after flurescein installation. (B) Corneal pachymetry map before flurescein installation. (C) Pachymetry map of tear flim obtained by substracting map B from map A.

Figure 3.

Changes in tear film thickness before and after pterygium surgery at 1, 2, 4, 12 weeks postoperatively. The postoperative tear film thickness is statistically significant being thicker than the preoperative one except at postoperative 2 weeks. *p < 0.05: Statistically significant.

Figure 4.

Changes in tear film break-up time before and after pterygium surgery at 1, 2, 4, 12 weeks postoperatively. The postoperative tear film break-up time is significantly longer than the preoperative after postoperative 4 weeks. *p < 0.05: Statistically significant.

Figure 5.

Changes in Schirmer I test before and after pterygium surgery at 1, 2, 4, 12 weeks postoperatively. The post- operative Schirmer I test is not significantly different to the preoperative one except at postoperative 1 week. *p < 0.05: Statistically significant.

Figure 6.

The distribution of ocular surface disease index (OSDI) score at baseline and after pterygium surgery.

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