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Pterygium: Intensity and Frequency of Activity
Author(s) -
Saad Ronald S.
Publication year - 1978
Publication title -
australian journal of opthalmology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.3
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1442-9071
pISSN - 0310-1177
DOI - 10.1111/j.1442-9071.1978.tb00250.x
Subject(s) - pterygium , incidence (geometry) , medicine , population , demography , age groups , ophthalmology , physics , environmental health , sociology , optics
S ummary A review of the literature on prevalence studies, a specific study in 1965–1966 on veterans seen in Sydney, a review of clinical records dating back to 1939 and a follow‐up study from 1962 to 1975 on the rate of pterygium removal operations performed in the Repatriation General Hospital, Sydney, against the background of the veteran population of N.S.W. showed that the highest incidence of pterygium was in early middle‐age and the lowest incidence in late middle‐age (excluding childhood when pterygium was rare). Pterygium activity has been classified according to its frequency and intensity. Frequency of activity is a new concept and means the percentage of eyes (not subjects) affected with active pterygia in a given population. This includes newly developed pterygia and pterygia which had developed in an earlier age group but which were still active. Frequency of activity was found to be low in youth, very high in early middle‐age, very low in late middle‐age and high in senility. Intensity of activity, on the other hand, was found to be high in youth and low in middle‐age and thereafter.