Abstract:

Background: Sickle cell disease is of increasing public health burden in both low and middle income countries and it is an important modifiable risk factor for cerebral vascular morbidity and mortality, particularly for stroke and other intra ocular manifestation. With increasing number of children born with sickle cell diseases, there is an increased risk of developing ocular diseases in their adulthood. Current research indicates that any problems can be seen in the eye prior to vision loss.

Objectives: What are ocular manifestations of SCD among patients attending BMC clinic?

Methodology: This was a retrospective cross-sectional study that was collecting data of patients of sickle cell disease attending ophthalmology department from January 2020 to May 2021. The study recruited 100 subjects. The data collected was processed and analyzed by using SPSS version 25. Frequency, mean, SD and p-value was used to show the power of the study.

Results: A total of 100 patients were included in this study, with a mean age of 13 years. There were 61% males and 39% females. There was a decline in the number genotypes was HbSS with 28% of patients and 72% were HbSc. There was a decline in the number of subjects with age in patients with HbSS. There is high ocular morbidity in sickle cell patients with ocular conditions such as decreased visual acuity, decreased refraction, changes in the interior and posterior chamber and raised intraocular pressure.

Conclusion/recommendation: There was increased incidence of ocular complications of sickle cell with age in this study, so I recommend that all patients with sickle cell disease should undergo periodic ophthalmological screening from the age of 10 years.