Objective: To determine the prevalence and types of refractive errors in University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital, Northeastern Nigeria. Design: A retrospective study of patients with refractive errors

METHODOLOGY All ophthalmic patients coming to the University Of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital are referred to the ophthalmology clinic. In the clinic patients whose visual acuity were less then 6/9 on the snellens test type or illiterate 'E' chart were given the pin hole to retake the visual acuity. All those whose visual acuity improved with the pin-hole test were sent to the optometrist to have their refraction done. A register was kept at the optometrist office where all records on patients refracted were entered. The information recorded includes age, sex, diagnosis and the refractive errors for right and left eyes in diopters. Myopia was defined as -0.50 diopters or more, and hypermetropia was defined as +0.50 diopters or more in each principal meridian while astigmatism was defined as at least a 0.50 difference between the two principal meridians. The records entered for the period January, 2006 to December, 2006 were then analyzed. Objective: To determine the prevalence and types of refractive errors in University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital, Northeastern Nigeria. Design: A retrospective study of patients with refractive errors seen at the eye clinic, University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital from January, 2006 to December, 2006. Results: A total of 388 patients had a non cycloplegic refraction. There were 186 males and 202 females (MF: 1:1.1). The most frequent age group was 31-40 years constituting 27.8% while age groups 21-30 and 41-50 constituted 21.1% and 20.15 respectively. Myopia was seen in 82(21.1%), Hypermetropia 18(4.7%) while astigmatism and presbyopia were seen in 89 (22.9%) and 199 (51.3%), respectively. Conclusion: The prevalence and types of refractive errors seen in Maiduguri are similar to those seen in the other parts of the country.