AIM:To evaluate the therapeutic effect of the anterograde and retrograde resection for treatment of pterygium.METHODS:From January 2006 to June 2010,totally 320 patients of 320 eyes with pterygium were randomly divided into 2 groups and underwent different operations.Pterygium was treated with anterograde resection combined with mitomycin C(MMC) for 128 eyes,and pterygium was treated with retrograde resection combined with MMC for 192 eyes.RESULTS:One year after operation,effective rate of the anterograde resection group and retrograde resection group were 91.4%(117 cases) and 97.4%(187 cases)respectively,which had statistically significant difference(P=0.016).CONCLUSION:The retrograde resection combined with MMC is an effective approach for pterygium.