Refractive Errors in Patients Attending Eye Clinic of Barau Dikko Teaching Hospital (BDTH) Kaduna, North-West, Nigeria

Abstract

Refractive error is an important cause of visual impairment affecting all strata of life. In spite of available cost-effective means of correction, the uncorrected refractive error remains a major challenge because of the effects on productivity of the working-age and the education of the young. This study was set up to describe the pattern of refractive errors at Barau Dikko Teaching Hospital, Kaduna Northwest Nigeria. This is a retrospective study of all consecutive patients who visited the eye department, seen by Ophthalmologists and refracted by Optometrists. Records of all these consecutive patients were retrieved between January 2010 and April 2021, such as patient's Name, Age, Hospital number, Entry Visual Acuity (EVA), Refraction, Corrected Visual Acuity (CVA), Near Acuity (NA) as well as diagnosis made by the Ophthalmologist. These variables were transferred into a proforma and then analyzed using IBM Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 23. There were 4,640 eyes of 2,888 people, comprising of 1,114 males (38.6%) and 1,774 females (61.4%), with mean age of 43.8 (4-90) years. Myopia occurred in 1,574(33.9%) eyes, maximum was -13D, hypermetropia in 1,964(42.3%) maximum was +4D in naturally occurring and +16D in aphakic and astigmatism in 480(10.4%). Astigmatism consisted of 291(60.6%) myopia, 59(12.3%) hypermetropia and 130(27.1%) mixed. With the rule (WTR) was more in ages greater than 35 and against the rule (ATR) in the young. Most eyes at presentation had Moderate visual impairment VA ≥ 6/18 and the proportion that achieved normal vision ≥ 6/6 increased from 1,134(24.4%) to 3,818(82.3%) with refraction. The presbyopic correction was carried out on 1,423(49.27%) of the people. The most recurrent was 1.5D and ranged was 1.00D-3.25D. Refractive errors constituted a major burden of visual impairment in our facility and glasses provided satisfactory results in most of them.