ABSTRACT
Introduction: Prognostication of the thyroid patient with eye disease aids in the choice of treatment strategy. To facilitate this, we investigated factors associated with decompression and/ or strabismus surgery in the Singaporean population. Materials and Methods: A 5-year retrospective study was performed. Patients who required strabismus and/or decompression surgery (n = 23) were compared to those who did not undergo either surgery (n = 44). Individual and multivariate age-adjusted odds ratios were calculated to determine significant associations. Results: Individually, male gender [odds ratio (OR), 4.5; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.5 to 13.4], uncontrolled hyperthyroidism (OR, 4.0; 95% CI, 1.1 to 14.3), steroid therapy (OR, 7.4; 95% CI, 2.3 to 24), diplopia (OR, 7.3; 95% CI, 2.3 to 23.1), objective vertical myopathy (OR, 11.7; 95% CI, 1.4 to 96.0), elevated intraocular pressure in the primary position (OR, 3.4; 95% CI, 1.2 to 10.0) and clinical evidence of optic neuropathy (OR, 13.1; 95% CI, 1.4 to 124.6) were significantly associated with the need for surgery. Logistic regression analysis showed the greater impact of male gender (OR, 4.2; 95% CI, 1.2 to 15.4), optic neuropathy (OR, 13.0; 95% CI, 1.2 to 143.7) and previous steroid therapy (OR, 4.2; 95%CI, 1.1 to 16.2) on prognostication. Conclusions: Chances of requiring strabismus and/or decompression surgery are significantly higher for male patients and those with uncontrolled hyperthyroidism. In particular, male patients with optic neuropathy and a history of previous steroid therapy warrant a graver prognosis.
Thyroid eye disease (TED) is a visually and socially disabling condition. Newly diagnosed patients are often fearful of sight-threatening complications that include optic nerve compression or restrictive strabismus. Although the current literature has pointed to age (>60 years), gender (male), abnormal thyroid function (both hyper- and hypo-thyroidism), smoking and radio-iodine treatment as risk factors for developing TED,1-11 few reports on Asian populations are available. This study was performed to evaluate prognostic factors in the Singaporean population with the aim of improving patient counselling and management.
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