Prevalence and Causes of Visual Impairment Associated with Corneal Disease Presenting to Eye OPD at GMC, Jammu

Background: Cornea is the transparent, avascular structure that forms the outer layer of the eyeball through which light enters the eye. According to National programme for control of blindness, India has more than 12 million people with visual impairment and corneal blindness accounts for 0.9% [1]. A large number of diseases affect the cornea. These include infectious causes- bacterial, fungal and viral causes; trauma, dystrophies, nutritional deficiency etc. So, this study aims to find the prevalence of visual impairment due to corneal diseases and its causes so appropriate steps can be taken in managing these conditions. Methods: It is a prospective, cross sectional, observational study conducted in Department of ophthalmology, GMC, Jammu for a period of 6 months from October 2023 to March 2024. All patients presenting to the eye opd with visual impairment were included in the study (vision <6/18). Detailed history and examination were done to find prevalence of corneal disease and it cause. Results: A total of 3276 patients were included in the study. Of these 108 patients had visual impairment due to corneal diseases. 57.4 % patients were males and 42.59% were females. The age distribution was as follows, 7 patients were in the age group of 0-10 years, 11 in group 10-20 years, 20 were of 20-30 years, 18 were 30-40 years, 23 in age group of 40- 50 and 29 were of age more than 50 years. Infectious causes (bacterial-24.07%, fungal-21.29% and viral keratitis-17.59% were the leading cause, followed by trauma (15.74%) and dry eye syndrome (8.33%). Conclusions: Corneal illnesses account one of the major cause of vision impairment, and their epidemiological patterns and etiology are varied. Many of the causes are preventable, so appropriate steps need to be taken to decrease the burden of corneal visual impairment.