AIM: To assess the expression of anti-apoptotic protein survivin and tumor suppressor p53 protein in primary and recurrent pterygium and to investigate the relationship between them. METHODS: Survivin was assessed immunohistochemically using rabbit polyclonal antibody and p53 using mouse monoclonal antibody in a study sample of 20 cases of primary pterygium, 10 cases of recurrent pterygium and 10 cases of normal conjunctiva. RESLULTS: In our study, 35% of primary (7 of 20) and 40% of recurrent (4 of 10) pterygium specimens were positive for survivin staining; 45% of primary (9 of 20) and 50% of recurrent (5 of 10) pterygium specimens were positive for p53 expression; and all normal conjunctiva showed no staining of either survivin or p53. The p53 and survivin immunoreactivity in primary and recurrent pterygium groups was greater than those in normal conjunctiva group (P<0.05). There were no differences in p53 and survivin immunoreactivity between groups of primary and recurrent pterygium (P>0.05). The expression of survivin clearly segregated with p53-positive pterygium as compared with p53-negative cases [8 of 14 cases (57.1%) vs 3 of 16 cases (15.2%)]. The Fisher's exact test analysis confirmed a highly statistically significant correlation between survivin and p53 expression (P<0.05). CONCLUSION: The survivin and p53 are overexpressed with correlation between them in primary and recurrent pterygium.