Patterns of presentations at a free eye clinic in an urban state hospital.

BACKGROUND Provision of affordable eye care is one of the cardinal programs of the Osun State Government of Nigeria. OBJECTIVE The objective of this study was to assess the pattern of eye diseases presenting in a secondary health care facility based at Osogbo the State Capital. MATERIALS AND METHODS We reviewed the hospital records of all patients that were cared for at the eye clinic of the State Hospital, Osogbo, Osun State, Nigeria from January 2009 to December 2010. RESULTS A total of 1018 patients were attended to at the eye clinic during the period of review. Mean age of these patients was 49.4 ± 23.2 years. There were 408 (40.1%) males and 610 (59.9%) females with a female-male ratio of 1.5 : 1. Most of them were traders (28.1%) and married (32.1%). Vernal conjunctivitis (21.1%), cataract (14%), glaucoma (11.1%), and refractive errors (20.7%) were the main eye diagnoses. CONCLUSION Preventable causes of blindness were quite common among the patients. There is a need for community education to reduce the prevalence of these diseases in the general population.