Pterygium: surgical treatment

Purpose: The surgical management of pterygium is often complicated by recur rence of disease. The goal of this study was to compare three different sur gical techniques used for the treatment of pterygium. Method: We propose a prospective and partly retrospective study on 167 case s of pterygium 151 were primary and 16 were recurrent, treated between I Ja nuary, 1995 and 30 June, 1998. The surgical treatment used of 3 different t echniques: pterygium excision for 111 eyes, pterygium excision with conjunctival autograft for 29 eyes, pterygium excision with application of mitomycin C for 27 eyes. Results: Immediate results for the three kinds of treatment were good. No s erious complications were noted. Long- term results show a recurrence rate of 10.3% for conjunctival autograft, 11.1% for mitomycin C application, whi le the pterygium excision alone had a recurrence rate of 55.9%. Conclusion: This study demonstrated that conjunctival autografting and the application of mitomycine C are safe surgical techniques that reduce the pr obability of recurrence after surgery for pterygium. They can be recommende d for young people and patients exposed to sun. Mitomycin therapy is the mo st appropriate treatment for these cases, bacause of its simplicity, lower lost and the relative lack of complication.