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Dennis Nkanga,1 Olukorede Adenuga,2 Ogugua Okonkwo,3 Wilson Ovienria,4 Affiong Ibanga,1 Chineze Agweye,1 Idris Oyekunle,3 Toyin Akanbi3 On behalf of The Collaborative Retina Research Network1University of Calabar Teaching Hospital, Calabar, Nigeria; 2Jos University Teaching Hospital, Jos, Nigeria; 3Eye Foundation Hospital, Lagos, Nigeria; 4Irrua Specialist Hospital, Edo, NigeriaCorrespondence: Ogugua OkonkwoEye Foundation Hospital, 27 Isaac John Street, GRA. Ikeja, Lagos, NigeriaTel +234 8035027308Email o_okonkwo@yahoo.comPurpose: To determine the burden of retinal diseases and the degree of visual impairment associated with each disease, amongst Nigerians.Patients and Methods: This was a hospital-based multicenter, prospective, cross-sectional, non-comparative study conducted from January to December 2018. Data was obtained from consecutive patients with a retinal diagnosis presenting at the general ophthalmic and specialty retina clinics in four hospitals (three public, and one private teaching eye department) in Nigeria. Biodata, visual acuity and refraction, intraocular pressure, findings on dilated retinal examination, diagnosis and systemic diseases were noted. Degree of monocular and bilateral visual loss associated with each diagnosed retinal disease was summarized and p value was calculated using chi-square test. P < 0.05 was considered significant.Results: Eight hundred seventy-six of 8614 patients had a retinal diagnosis; establishing a hospital-based retinal disease prevalence of 9.8%. Male:female ratio was 1.1:1. The mean age of study patients was 49.97 (standard deviation 17.64 years). Mean symptom duration was 21.63 months (standard deviation 41.94). The mean intraocular pressure was 13.87 mmHg. Forty-three different retinal diseases were diagnosed. The most common was retinal complications of diabetes, i.e., diabetic retinopathy (DR) alone, diabetic macular edema (DME) alone and a combination of DR and DME, which accounted for 13.7%, 5.6% and 9.3%, respectively (contributed 28.6% of the entire diagnosis). This was followed by retinal detachment (RD), in 219 eyes (15.4%), dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD) in 124 eyes (8.7%). Nearly half of the eyes were blind or severely visually impaired. Blindness occurred in 34.1% of eyes; severe visual impairment in 8.2% of eyes and 29.7% had normal vision. There were 469 patients who had systemic diseases. The common systemic diseases were hypertension in 169 patients (19.3% of the total number of patients), hypertension and diabetes in 156 patients (18%), and diabetes alone in 98 patients (11.1%). Sickle cell disease was present in 1.5%.Conclusion: There is need to invest in infrastructure, local training and development of systems for early detection and treatment of several retinal diseases in sub-Saharan Africa; DR and DME having the largest burden. Collaborative physician care and management of hypertension and diabetes could significantly reduce the burden of DR and DME.Keywords: vitreoretinal diseases, sub-Saharan Africa, diabetic retinopathy, macular edema, retinal detachment

Background: Monitoring of patients' experiences and satisfaction provide the health institution one of several parameters to measure quality of services and determine areas where improvement and or additional services are needed. Aim: To determine patients' satisfaction regarding the services in the ophthalmic out-patient clinic in University of Calabar Teaching Hospital. Materials and methods: A descriptive cross sectional study was conducted among patients attending the eye clinic of the department of ophthalmology, University of Calabar Teaching hospital, Calabar from 1st October to 31st December 2016. All consecutive registered adult patients who gave consent, along with consenting guardians of patients who were younger than 18 years were included in the study and interviewed. An Interviewer-administered pretested and validated questionnaire was used for data collection. Data obtained were analyzed using SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 20 software). Frequencies and percentages were used. Parametric analyses included bivariate analysis and multiple logistic regressions and Pearson coefficient of correlation with p 0·05 being considered statistically significant. Results: The level of satisfaction with accessibility to the hospital and medical care in the eye clinic was very high 95.4%. On time spent in clinic, majority of respondents (50.8%) felt that the waiting time for emergency treatment was good. However, only 39.9% of the respondents felt that the waiting time to be attended to by a doctor in the routine clinic was short. Waiting time for performing an investigation and subsequently getting the result was reported as poor by 62.5% and very poor by 69% respectively. Conclusion: This study demonstrated that only 35.2% of respondents were satisfied with the overall quality of the medical care service received from the eye clinic of the UCTH, Calabar. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]