Differences among Ophthalmology Patients Referred to Tertiary Medical Centers according to Referral Hospital

Kim, Heesuk; Kim, Hong Kyu; Rim, Tyler Hyungtaek; Kim, Ji Won; Kim, Jin Hyung; Kim, Sung Soo

To further investigate the underlying causes for these differences, we examined patients' diagnoses according to their age and medical institution. Many of the patients under the age of 20 had strabismus and underwent ophthalmologic plastic surgery, and, patients who were referred from noneye specialists often had no ophthalmological problems, while those referred from eye specialists commonly had strabismus and those referred from eye specialists in trainee hospital frequently had retinal disease. Many of the patients between 20 and 29 years old had corneal or retinal problems; Values are presented as number (%) or mean ± standard deviation. those who were referred from non-eye specialists as well as eye specialists often had corneal disease and those referred from eye specialists in trainee hospital commonly underwent ophthalmologic plastic surgery. Retinal diseases were most common in the patients over the age of 50 (Fig. 1 ).