Background:Pterygium is a common disorder of ocular surface in many parts of world described as ophthalmic enigma & is a potentially blinding disease in the advanced stage when it encroaches visual axis which can have significant impact on vision and require surgery for visual rehabilitation.

Aim: To compare change in refractive astigmatism and visual acuity before & after pterygium excision followed by sutureless and gluefree conjunctival autograft.

Materials & Methods: The prospective, comparative study was carried out on 90 primary unilateral pterygium patients.Visual acuity & refractive astigmatism were assessed pre–operatively & post–operatively on 2nd month follow up.Pterygium excision followed by sutureless & gluefree conjunctival autograft was the surgical technique used.

Results: Grade II pterygium comprised 32 (35.56 %) patients followed by 30 (33.33 %) patients which were of grade I.The pre operative mean refractive astigmatic value was more in grade IV pterygia i.e. 4.25 ±0.59 D which was decreased to 1.83 ±0.83 D postoperatively followed by grade III pterygia which had preoperative mean astigmatic value 4.02 ±0.51 D reduced markedly up to 1.38 ±0.58 D postoperatively.

Conclusion: The present study concludes that reduction in refractive astigmatism occurs after pterygium excision followed by sutureless & gluefree conjunctival autograft with improvement in visual acuity with additional benefit of lowest recurrence rate.