Clinical demographic characteristics and ocular Co-morbidities associated with Secondary lipid keratopathy at a tertiary care center.

OBJECTIVE

To describe the demographics and clinical profile of Secondary Lipid Keratopathy in patients presenting to a multi-tier ophthalmology hospital network in India.

METHODS

This cross-sectional hospital-based study included 3,082,727 new patients presenting between August 2010 and December 2021. Patients with a clinical diagnosis of Secondary Lipid Keratopathy in at least one eye were included as cases. The data were collected using an electronic medical record system.

RESULTS

Overall, 389 (0.01%) patients were diagnosed with Secondary Lipid Keratopathy. Majority were males (53.5%) and had a unilateral affliction (82.8%). The most common age group at presentation was during the sixth decade of life with 76 (19.5%) patients. The overall prevalence was higher in patients from a lower socio-economic status (0.02%) presenting from the rural geography (0.01%) and in individuals related to agriculture work/ manual labor (0.02%). Of the 456 eyes, mild or no visual impairment (<20/70) was noted in 194 (42.5%) eyes followed by moderate visual impairment (>20/70 to 20/200) in 81 (17.8%) eyes. At presentation, the mean visual acuity was 0.96 ± 1.07 log MAR units. The most associated corneal condition was non-HSV corneal scar (36.8%), followed by spheroidal degeneration (19.7%) and HSV keratitis in (18.6%).

CONCLUSION

Secondary lipid keratopathy more commonly affected males presenting during the sixth decade of life. Most (42.5%) of the eyes had mild or no visual impairment. Corneal scar (non-HSV) was the most associated corneal condition in both unilateral and bilateral cases. HSV keratitis was the commonest corneal condition in those between 20 and 40 years, followed by those above 40 years.