A Clinical Observation on the Argon Laser Effect of the Pterygium

ABSTRACT

Pterygium is a common disease recurred frequently. Although several methods have been suggested for prevention of recurrences there was no royal road for that. In this study, we applied argon laser on each pterygium of 55 eyes and evaluated the effect of the argon laser treatment by observing the recurrence rate. The stage of pterygium was evaluated by the degree of corneal involvement and the number of blood vessels frorn the base to apex of the pterygium was also counted. We applied argon laser to the pterygium before or after surgical removal. The recurrence rate of pterygium was high in the persons under 50 years old and having many number of fibrovascular blood vessels in the pterygoid mass. This difference was statistically significant(p<0.05). However, sex of patients and size of pterygium did not influence the recurrence rate. Conclusively, argon laser treatment for pterygium would be recommendable to the aged patients having a few number of blood vessels in pterygoid mass.