Objectives:

To evaluate the recurrence rates of two different pterygium excision procedures, i.e. “excision from the cornea to the limbus” and “excision from the limbus to the cornea”.

Materials and Methods:

In this randomized prospective study, we included 32 patients diagnosed with primary pterygium between September 2011 and January 2012. The patients were assigned into two groups according to the excision technique: from the cornea to the limbus or from the limbus to the cornea. The patients were evaluated at 4, 8, and 12 months after the conjunctival autograft surgery. Recurrence was defined as conjunctival (fibrovacular tissue reaching the limbus but not the cornea) and corneal recurrence. The results were analyzed by Mann-Whitney U-test; p-values less than 0.05 were considered as significant.

Results:

The recurrence rates between the two groups 12 months after the surgery were not found significantly different for conjunctival recurrence (p=0.072) and were found significantly different for corneal recurrence (p=0.033).

Conclusion:

The tissue defect-covering procedures after the excision of pterygium are not the only factors that affect recurrence; pterygium excision procedures also affect the recurrence rates. In this study, excision of the pterygium from the cornea to the limbus was found superior to excision from the limbus to the cornea.

Keywords: Primary pterygium, recurrent pterygium, pterygium surgery