Prevalence of Common and Rare Ophthalmic Findings in the Adult Population

Abstract Purpose To examine the ophthalmic data from a large database, and to investigate ophthalmic findings of the eye and its adnexa, including differences in age and sex. Methods Retrospective analysis including medical data of all consecutive individuals whose medical records were stored in the Institute of Medical Survey database at a tertiary medical center between 2001–2020. The main outcome measures included the prevalence of ophthalmic findings. Results Data was derived from 184,589 visits of 36,762 patients (mean age 52 years, 68% males). The prevalence of the following eye pathologies were extracted. Eyelids: blepharitis (n = 4885, 13.3%), dermatochalasis (n = 4666, 12.7%), ptosis (n = 677, 1.8%), ectropion (n = 73, 0.2%), and xanthelasma (n = 160, 0.4%). Anterior segment: pinguecula (n = 3368, 9.2%), pterygium (n = 852, 2.3%), and cataract or pseudophakia (n = 9381, 27.1%). Cataract type (percentage of all phakic patients): nuclear sclerosis (n = 8908, 24.2%), posterior subcapsular (n = 846, 2.3%), capsular anterior (n = 781, 2.1%). Pseudophakia was noted in n = 1697 patients (4.6%), and n = 229 (0.6%) had posterior subcapsular opacification. Optic nerve head (ONH): peripapillary atrophy (n = 4947, 13.5%), tilted disc (n = 3344, 9.1%), temporal slope (n = 410, 1.1%), ONH notch (n = 61, 0.2%), myelinated nerve fiber layer (n = 94, 0.3%), ONH drusen (n = 37, 0.1%), optic pit (n = 3, 0.0%), and ON coloboma (n = 4, 0.0%). Most pathologies were more common in males except for ONH findings. Similarly, most pathologies demonstrated a higher prevalence with increasing age. Conclusions Normal ophthalmic data and the prevalence of ocular pathologies provided were extracted from a very large database of random subjects seen at a single tertiary medical center.