Comparison Between Suture Technique & Suture Less Technique (Glue Less, Cut & Paste) in Pterygium Surgery Performed with Conjunctival Auto-Graft

Purpose: To compare the safety and efficacy of suture less (cut and paste) to sutured technique in Pterygium surgery performed with conjunctival auto graft and to study the change in corneal astigmatism. Methods: Randomized Comparative clinical trial was done on 42 subjects with primary pterygium. Subjects were randomized to undergo pterygium surgery using either suture less technique (21 eyes: Group A) or sutured technique (21 eyes: Group-B). Post operative follow -up was done after 48 hours, 1 week, 2 weeks, 6 weeks and 3 months. Outcome measures were surgical time, post operative recovery and keratometry. Results: On 1st week follow-up, post operative discomfort (watering and foreign body sensation) was present in all subjects (21subjects:100%) in Group-B, where as in Group-A, watering was present in 19% (n=4) and foreign body sensation was present in 9.5 % (n=2) only. Mean surgical time was 15.04±1.47 and 27.83±1.82 minutes for Group-A and Group-B respectively. Partial Graft dehiscence occurred in one case in Group-A (4.8%) and extrusion of Tenon’s at donor site occurred in one case in Group-B (4.8%). Mean corneal astigmatism pre-operatively was 4.26±3.10D (WTR) and 4.98±3.41D (WTR) in Group-A and Group-B, which was reduced to 1.03±0.66D (WTR) and 1.26±0.84D (WTR) respectively after the surgery. Conclusion: Suture less technique reduces surgery time, post operative discomfort with successful adherence of the auto-graft. Post operative reduction in corneal astigmatism was significant with p value 0.001 and was similar in both the groups.