Pterygium word derived from “pterygion” (ancient Greek for wing), is a wing-shaped, fibrovascular overgrowth arising from subconjunctival tissue over the cornea. It proliferates as vascularized granulation tissue by destroying superficial layers of stroma and Bowman's membrane to invade cornea, the whole being covered by conjunctival epithelium[1,2]. Pterygium also known as a surfer’s eye is now accepted as a dysregulated cell proliferation disease and distorted wound-healing response rather than a degenerative lesion [3].

Pterygium is generally managed conservatively unless any of the following circumstances arises: loss of visual acuity due to encroachment onto the visual axis, induced astigmatism, marked discomfort and irritation, marked cosmetic deformity, limitation of ocular motility secondary to restriction. In such conditions, surgical intervention is required by simply excision of pterygium leaving bare sclera which reported 25%–45% rates of recurrence [4]. To prevent recurrence of pterygium either glue or suture is being used for conjunctival autografting [5,6]. Use of sutures in conjunctival autograft led to various complications, i.e., discomfort, increased lacrimation, and at times suture-related granuloma or abscess [7]. which is halted by alternatives such as fibrin glue, is a blood-derived product, associated with the risk of blood-related diseases transmission. Recently autologous blood is used during surgery which offers many advantages like easy availability, low cost, less postoperative discomfort. the only exception of patients who are on aspirin or who suffer from a coagulation factor deficiency [8]. The purpose of this study is to compare the simple excision leaving bare sclera and currently used techniques.

This study was conducted at the tertiary care centre in central India from a period of July 2019 to March 2021. In this prospective observational study 50 eyes of 50 patients who were presented with primary pterygium were included after taking consent. All procedures and post-operative evaluations were done by the same surgeon. All the patients underwent complete slit-lamp biomicroscopic examination. Patients with bi-headed pterygium, recurrent pterygium,

The age of the patient ranged from 24 to 74 years with an average age of 47.48 years. In group 2 there were 14 male patients and 10 female patients. In group 3 there were 12 male patients and 11 female patients. In group 1, three patients underwent pterygium excision with the bare sclera technique. The average surgical time taken in group 2 was 45.6 minutes and in group 3 was 57.2 minutes. The mean surgical time was least for group 1 (33 minutes) followed by group 2 and maximum for group 3.

Table 1- shows Postoperative discomfort in both groups.

Postoperative complaints (watering, foreign body sensation, pain) were seen in patients. On the first postoperative day in group 2, 70.8% of patients had mild discomfort and 29.1% of patients had moderate discomfort. Whereas in group 3, 39.1% and 60.8% had moderate and severe discomfort respectively. On the 7^th postoperative day, 62.5%,29.1% and 8.3% of patients had

In our study, autologous blood is an effective alternative as compared to sutures as it is cost-effective, does not contain a risk of disease transmission and was associated with less post-operative discomfort. However, the chances of graft displacement are higher with autologous blood.

Author’s contribution: I would like to thank Dr Sapna Raghuwanshi for the conception of idea and designing the framework of research. Also I would like to acknowledge Dr Monika Singh and Dr Shreya Tyagi for data collection and interpretation.