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Vitreo-retinal Disorders at High Altitude of Nepal Raba Thapa¹ MD, Geoff Tabin² MD, Alan S. Crandall² MD ¹Vitreo-retina Service, Tilganga Institute of Ophthalmology, Kathmandu, Nepal. Purpose: To explore the pattern of vitreo-retinal disorders at high altitude of Nepal Methods: Consecutive patients aged 40 years and older presented at Micro-surgical eye camp conducted at mountainous region of Nepal (2860 metres) on October 2010 were included in the study. Detail history, ocular examination including fundus evaluation under mydriasis was done after informed consent. Results: The age range of total 81 patients was 40-91 years. Females were slightly higher (51.9%). Sherpa were the main ethnic group (76.5%). The occupation of majority was agriculture (51.87%) followed by trekking to the mountains as porters or trekking guide (28.39%) at height ranging 5,200- 8,800 metres. Smokers comprised of 13.5% of cases. Hypertension (28.1%) was the predominant systemic problem. Best corrected visual acuity of 8/18 and better was found in 86.4% of cases. The major retinal problems diagnosed were age related macular degeneration (ARMD) (19.6%) with mild dry AMD in majority (16%), hypertensive retinopathy (HR) (12.2%) with predominant grade I change (8.6%),retinal vein occlusion (RVO) (7.1%) with branch RVO comprising of 4.9%. Dilated and tortuous retinal veins were present in 25.9% of cases with coexisting ARMD and HR (9.8%). None had diabetic retinopathy among 3 known cases and two new cases having RVO with coexisting hypertension. Other retinal problems were macular hole (2.46%), solar retinopathy (2.46%) and choroidal tear (1.2%). Conclusion: ARMD, HR, and RVO are common vitreo-retinal disorders besides the high altitude retinopathy change as dilated, tortuous veins at high altitude of Nepal. Corresponding author |
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