Abstract
Background: This work was a retrospective study undertaken in a tertiary eye care hospital to evaluate the putative prevalence and referral patterns for keratoconus by gender, age, and region of Saudi Arabia.
Methods: Files from 1638 keratoconus patients from different regions of Saudi Arabia referred to King Khaled Eye Specialist Hospital, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, between January 1999 and December 2010 were analyzed in a retrospective manner.
Results: The patient's files were reviewed for the demographic factors of age, gender, and area of origin within Saudi Arabia. Mean age at evaluation was 21.7 (range 14-49) years. In total, 465 patients (28.39%) were aged 21-25 years, with 389 patients (23.75%) being aged 16-20 years. A minority of patients were aged 10-15 years and 46-50 years (34 [2.08%] and 51 [3.11%], respectively). Keratoconus patients aged 26-30 years and 31-35 years numbered 230 (14.04%) and 273 (16.67%), respectively. The distribution of patients referred with keratoconus aged 36-45 years was narrower, comprising 113 (6.89%) and 83 (5.07%) patients, respectively. With respect to gender, 870 (53.11%) of cases were male and 768 (46.89%) were female. With regard to region, 37.30% were referred from the central region of Saudi Arabia, 37.11% were from the southern region, 10.50% were from the northern region, and 9.34% were from the western region. The smallest number of patients came from the eastern region (5.73%).
Conclusion: In total, 1638 patients were referred to King Khaled Eye Specialist Hospital for treatment of keratoconus from one of the five regions of Saudi Arabia at an average annual rate of referral of 136.5 patients per year. The overall distribution of keratoconus patients was almost equal between men and women, with a higher incidence in younger patients aged 16-26 years.