Ocular Allergy Observatory. National epidemiological survey of seasonal allergic keratoconjunctivitis seen in ophthalmology

: The main objective of this first epidemiological ocular allergy survey was to precise the profile of patients with an ocular allergy, especially in terms of antecedents, clinical type and trigger or favourising factors, in order to better determine the evolution of the type of diagnosed allergy. This survey covered 399 sufferers drown from amongst general ophthalmologists patients consulting for ocular allergy. Three main points which came out of the survey were: - the chronic aspect of this pathology and the multiplicity of responsible allergens; - the almost permanent existence of conjunctival lesions (9 patients out of 10) and corneal epithelial disease (1 patient out of 3); - the need for an extremely rigourous and thorough questioning of the patient and a complete ophthalmologic examination covering not only the symptoms but equally the lesions of ocular allergy.