Background: Recent reports suggested that pterygium significantly alters corneal endothelium cell density. We performed this study to evaluate the changes in corneal endothelium cell density in patients with pterygium.
Methods: A cross-sectional, comparative, study was conducted on 20 adults' patients (total 40 eyes) with unilateral pterygium and a good-quality endothelial cell count. The contralateral eye of each patient served as a control. The endothelial cell density was measured by specular microscope.
Results: The majority of patients were males with average age of 45 ±8 years old. Astigmatism difference was of average 1.18 ±1.5. Pterygium length ranged from 2 to 4 mm (mean 2.7 ±0.65mm), width ranged from 2 to 4 mm (mean 2.45 ±0.6mm) and pterygium size ranged from 4 to 12 mm2 (mean, 6.75 ±2.69mm). The Specular microscopy showed no statistically significant difference between eyes with pterygium and controls for endothelial cell density. The correlations between endothelial cell density and pterygium sizes were weak positive not statistically significant (P-value >0.05),
Conclusion: In conclusion, this comparative study showed that pterygium was associated with a decrease in corneal ECD but with statistical insignificant difference.