Ocular disorders in a tertiary Hospital in South East Nigeria

Abstract

The object of this study was to determine the pattern of ocular disease patients that presented to the Enugu State University of Science and Technology Teaching Hospital, Park Lane, Enugu, Nigeria. A retrospective study was conducted, where the medical case notes of patients who had ocular examinations, other clinical examinations, and investigations from April 2022 through December 2022 were retrieved. There were a total of 1145 patients, with a male population of 476 (41.6%), while females were 669 (58.4%). The mean age of the study population was 40.8 years, with a Standard Deviation (SD) of 22.4. A total of 924 (80.7%) participants were adults while children (aged 16 years and below) were 221 in number and constituted 19.3% of the study population. The most common eye disease was refractive error, which occurred in 266 (23.2%) of the participants; it was followed by allergic eye diseases, 201 (17.6%), cataract, 170 (14.9%), glaucoma, 111 (9.7%), and trauma to the eye, 94 (8.2%). Among the children, the most common eye disease seen were allergic eye diseases, 78 (35.3%), followed by refractive error, 70 (31.7%), trauma, 21 (9.5%), cataract, 11 (5.0%), while infections of the eye were 10 (4.5%). The most common eye disease among the adult participants was refractive error, 196 (21.1%), and then cataract, 159 (17.2%), allergic eye diseases, 123 (13.3%), glaucoma, 105 (11.4%), and retinal pathologies, 82 (8.9%). The most common causes of eye diseases in this study were refractive error, allergic eye diseases, cataracts, glaucoma, and trauma. Health education at community and primary health care level could help to reduce the number of people with avoidable causes of visual impairment.