Assessment of pattern of retinal disease among patients attend ing retina clinic at SPHMMC hospital, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 2022

Abstract

Abstract Background: Retinal diseases are one of the most common pathologies encountered during ophthalmic examination and consultation. But given the historical low priority allocated for retinal diseases in developing na tions including Ethiopia in the face of cataract and trachoma, literature on retinal disease is scarce. This study aims to fill the gap on literature avail able on the pattern of retinal disease in Ethiopia. Objective: The main purpose this study is to assess the pattern of retinal diseases at SPMMC hospital, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 2022 Methods: Hospital based cross-sectional study was done on patients at tending retina clinic at SPHMMC. Charts of all 408 consecutive patients who were evaluated for the first time at retina clinic between June2020 – June2021was retrieved, relevant demographic and clinical data was col lected using data extraction format. Data was reviewed for completeness by principal investigator and incomplete data were discarded. After it was entered into epidata, it was exported to SPSS.Simple descriptive statistics was used to generate frequencies, percentages, and proportions by using SPSS version 23. Results: A total of 816 eyes of 408 patients were included in this study. Among these patients males were 237 (58.1%), females accounted for 171 (41.9%) of patients. The median age of presentation was 57 years.163 patients (40%) presented with some form of visual impairment, while 51 patients (12.5%) presented with bilateral blindness.Systemic dis eases were found in 218 (53.4%)of participants, mainly diabetes and hy pertension. Cataract was the most common ocular comorbidity involving 233 eyes accounting for 34% of non-retinal diseases. The most common retinal diseases were diabetic retinopathy involving244 eyes, accounting for 27.85% of all retinal diseases; the second most common retinal dis ease was AMDinvolving213eyes (24.3 %), followed by DME as the third most common with 72 eyes accounting for 8.2% of retinal diseases. Conclusions: In this study: DR, AMD and DME are the major retinal diseases identified at our clinic. With aging population and increasing diabetes mellitus prevalence the burden of these most common retinal diseases will be immense, hence underlining the need for adjusting our priority and care.