Influence of Pterygium on Corneal Biomechanical Properties

ABSTRACT

Purpose: To evaluate the influence of pterygium on corneal biomechanical properties as measured by the ocular response analyzer (ORA).

Methods: ORA measurements of 48 eyes with primary nasal pterygium were compared with those of healthy fellow eyes. The mean age of the patients was 46.6 ± 18.9 years. Corneal hysteresis (CH), corneal resistance factor (CRF), Goldmann-correlated intraocular pressure (IOPg), and corneal-compensated IOP (IOPcc) were obtained for each subject by using the ORA (Reichert Ophthalmic Instruments, Depew, NY).

Results: CH and CRF were significantly lower in the eyes with pterygium than in the healthy fellow eyes (p1 = 0.011, p2 = 0.014, respectively). On the other hand, there were no significant differences between the eyes with pterygium and healthy fellow eyes concerning IOPg and IOPcc (p1 = 0.948, p2 = 0.129, respectively).

Conclusions: The present study showed that biomechanical properties measured by ORA were affected by pterygium. The eyes with primary nasal pterygium had lower CH and CRF than healthy fellow eyes. Therefore, the effect of pterygium should be taken into account in order to make correct diagnoses by ORA.

KEYWORDS:

• Corneal hysteresis
• corneal resistance factor
• ocular response analyzer
• pterygium

Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge the kind assistance of Dr. Adam Gyedu in reviewing the article.

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.