Garima Singh

Abstract

Aims: To study cases of corneal degenerations presenting to a tertiary eye care centre in central India with regards to their clinical profile, socio-demographic parameters, association with dry eye and their visual impairment at presentation. Materials and Methods: Cases of corneal degenerations presenting to our Cornea Clinic in a span of one year were identified and categorized. Details were noted regarding age, sex, socioeconomic status, residential locality, occupation, working conditions and prior ocular history. Dry eye assessment was done using Schirmer test and patients were sorted under various categories of visual disability. Results: We came across a total of 127 cases of corneal degeneration, among which the maximum number (74.80%) were of Arcus Senilis (95 cases), followed by 10.24% Spheroidal Degeneration (13), 7.09% Band Shaped Keratopathy (9), 5.51% Crocodile Shagreen (7), 1.57% Salzmann Nodular Degeneration (2) and 0.79% Terriens Marginal Degeneration (1 case). The mean age was 61.66 years and the male: female ratio was 1.89:1. Most cases belonged to low socioeconomic status (48.03%), urban locality (65.35%) and were involved in indoor work (67.72%), with the exception of spheroidal degeneration. Only 12.60% cases of degeneration had Schirmer 1 values suggestive of dry eye problem ( (32.28%) fell in Category 2 of visual disability (75% impairment), excluding the 33.86% of cases which had even Conclusion: The study sheds light on the profile of cases of corneal degenerations, some findings in accordance with the existing data and some not, in particular relevance to the current trend and the specified region.   Keywords: Clinical profile, Corneal degenerations, Sociodemographic factors, Visual impact.

Open full article page