Debdas Mukherjee1, Khevna Patel2, Nivedita Choudhury3, Alok Kumar4, Debtanu Mukherjee5
AIM
To study the epidemiological characteristics, predisposing factors and treatment outcome of corneal ulcer in consecutive 150 patients who refused corneal scraping for microbacteriological examination in eastern part of rural India.
METHOD
It was a prospective study, which was conducted on 150 patients presenting with corneal ulcer. These patients refused corneal scraping for their apprehension for the further damage to eye. The study was conducted from March 2014 to March 2015. Demographic factors such as age, sex, occupation and predisposing factors were also recorded.
RESULTS
A total of 150 patients with corneal ulcer were enrolled in the study. Majority of patients were in the age group of 41-50 (22%) years followed by patients in the age group 31-40 (21%) years. 77.33% patients were males and 22.67% were females. 63 (42%) were farmers, 14 (9%) were labourers. Most common traumatic agent was paddy leaf 62 (41%). Most patients presented with mild corneal ulcer 90 (61%), followed by severe corneal ulcer with hypopyon 38 (25%). Maximum patients already had taken treatment earlier before their first visit to our hospital, out of which maximum patients received unknown treatment from quacks (42%) followed by steroid use (14%). As s per month wise distribution, maximum cases were found in December 28 (19%) followed by month of January 20 (13%). Maximum patients recovered with our treatment 84 (56%).
CONCLUSION
Corneal ulcer is a serious eye problem in rural areas, which may cause severe visual morbidity if not blindness. It must be treated very energetically to reduce ocular morbidity. In rural India, most cases are mixed infection and standard book/teaching managements of corneal ulcer are often scary to the illiterate village people, so the patients should be started on simple empirical therapy in order to prevent ocular morbidity and complication. A community-based awareness should be done to prevent corneal ulcer.
