Abstract

A REVIEW OF LITERATURE OF ARMA (PTERYGIUM) ACCORDING TO MODERN SCIENCE

Amruta Dadaraje Giramkar* and Sandeep Kisan Nimase

ABSTRACT

Pterygium is one of the very commonly encountered ocular conditions in our country, especially affecting people of low socioeconomic strata. It amounts to significant visual morbidity of our population. Proper understanding of the epidemiology and risk factors of this condition is essential for planning appropriate measures to prevent its occurrence and thereby reducing the physical and financial burden to the society. The role of prolonged sunlight and UV light exposure is a proven risk factor. Patient working outdoors should be counseled about the importance of wearing protective eye gears. It should be emphasized that such protective measures can not only delay the onset but also the progression of pterygium to some extent. Adequate management of asymptomatic dry eye is mandatory especially in patients working outdoors, as it can play a contributory role and hence the importance of dry eye evaluation in all cases of pterygium. Even though most of the study populations were from lower altitudes, the role of high altitude in the genesis of pterygium definitely needs to be considered. Though co morbid conditions like hypertension and diabetes do not play any role in the initiation and progression of pterygium, they can still contribute further to the visual morbidity. As pterygium is usually a bilateral disease and the development of one eye always precedes the other, educating the patient can delay the progression in the affected eye and also to reduce the risk of pterygium developing in the other eye to some extent.

Keywords: .