An eye with wings

Q: My cousin has this growth, like a white piece of meat, growing over the brown part of his eye. What is this?

A: It sounds like you’re describing a pterygium (pronounced “ter-i- jee-um”) A pterygium is tissue from the white part of the eye, that grows onto the “cornea,” that clear covering over the brown part of the eye (which is called the “iris”). This is not a cataract. The word pterygium comes from Greek word for “wing.” I suppose when the Greeks first saw these things growing on peoples’ eyes, they looked like wings to them. Usually they grow in from the side closest to the nose, but sometimes they can grow onto both sides of the cornea, and then it can really look like the cornea has a set of wings. (By the way, the words pterygium and pterodactyl share the same Greek origins. A pterodactyl is the dinosaur with wings.)

Pterygia typically grow very slowly over many years. They start small and creep across the surface of the cornea. They are caused by exposure to ultraviolet light, like sunshine. In fact, this is one of the reasons that pterygia are so common in the tropics. We get more ultraviolet exposure here. And this is one of the primary reasons to wear a good pair of sunglasses that block ultraviolet light.

Once in a while, pterygia can get red and irritated. This seems to happen after exposure to lots of sun and wind, like after spending a day at the beach without sunglasses. These symptoms can be treated with a variety of drops, and usually go away in a few days. But sometimes, the redness and irritation can last for many weeks or months. And in these situations treatment is needed for weeks and months.

Lot’s of people ask me to remove their pterygia. This is a fairly straightforward operation. But many times the pterygia can grow back. There are a few different surgical techniques that are used to treat pterygia, and many of us ophthalmologists use one that is a bit more complex to perform, but that lowers the recurrence rate from about 50 percent down to 10 percent. The surgery takes about half an hour, and you go home the same day. We numb the eye so there is no pain. Most people are very happy with their pterygium surgery.

It is usually fine to leave a small pterygium alone. But if the pterygium starts to get close to the middle of the cornea, it can cause visual problems. You definitely want to get it removed before it crosses the center of the cornea since it can leave a permanent scar.

If you have a growth on your eye, see your eye specialist. Although pterygia are not cancerous, there are many growths on the eyes that can be cancerous.

(David Khorram, MD is a board certified ophthalmologist, and director of Marianas Eye Institute. Questions and comments are welcome. Call 235-9090 or email eye@vzpacifica.net. Copyright © 2005 David Khorram.)