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Deprivation and follow-up issues following “perfect” pterygium surgery in the NHS

Eye (2024)Cite this article

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Pterygia are degenerative fibrovascular conjunctival growths; they can be asymptomatic or affect vision by inducing corneal astigmatism or visual axis involvement. In 2008, Hirst reported results of the ‘Pterygium Extended Removal followed by Extended Conjunctival Transplantation (PERFECT)’ technique with extremely low recurrence rates (0.05% at 1 year) [1]. Despite this template, there is no agreed recurrence rate definition in the literature [2].

The relationship between socio-economic status and health inequality is well-established. The Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) is a relative measure consisting of seven domains, including employment, education, housing, and crime [3]. Previous ophthalmic studies have associated SIMD with delayed presentation [4]. Due to increasing rates of non-attendance at post-operative reviews, we performed a retrospective audit of all patients who underwent pterygium surgery since 2015 using ‘PERFECT’ technique principles (large Tenon’s excision and conjunctival autograft) by a single surgeon in Glasgow, Scotland.

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References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Tennent Institute of Ophthalmology, Gartnavel General Hospital, 1053 Great Western Road, Glasgow, G12 0YN, UK

    Megan Quinn, Toby Boote & David Lockington

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  1. Megan Quinn
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  2. Toby Boote
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  3. David Lockington
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Contributions

DL had the original idea. MQ and TB performed the audit and drafted the article. DL revised the article and provided senior support. All authors agree with the final submitted version.

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Correspondence to David Lockington.

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Quinn, M., Boote, T. & Lockington, D. Deprivation and follow-up issues following “perfect” pterygium surgery in the NHS. Eye (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41433-024-03052-x

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