Epidemiological and Clinical Features of Macular Oedema in Douala, Cameroun

Abstract

Background: Macular oedema (MO) is the accumulation of fluid and other substances in the macula, leading to the thickening of the retinal tissue and a decrease in visual function. Aim: To determine the epidemiological and clinical features of MO in Douala hospitals. Materials and methods : This was a multi-centre, cross-sectional and descriptive study conducted from January–August 2022. Consenting patients being treated for MO were consecutively recruited. The variables of interest were age, sex, LogMAR visual acuity (VA), clinical features and spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) findings. Data were analysed using IBM SPSS Statistics version 20 and reported as frequency distributions and percentages. Results : Of the 14,261 patients seen, 116 patients (152 eyes) had MO, giving a prevalence of 0.81%. Patients with MO had an average age of 54.87±1.57 years, and the majority were females (61; 52.6%). Approximately 64% (98 eyes) were visually impaired, and the majority (80 eyes; 69%) had unilateral MO. Based on SD-OCT findings, 120 eyes (78.95%) had a centre involving MO or involving the central 1 mm with a mean central macular thickness (CMT) of 334.22 ± 10.40 µm. There was a negative correlation between CMT and VA ( r = −0.434, P = 0.001). The three most common causes of MO were diabetic MO (87 eyes; 54.24%), retinal venous occlusions (RVOs) (14; 9.21%) and uveitis (10 eyes; 6.58%). Conclusion: Diabetic MO, RVOs and uveitis were the three main causes of MO in this study. There was a statistically significant negative correlation between CMT and VA.