Abstract
Purpose: :
To evaluate the recurrence rate of pterygia after surgery using fibrin tissue adhesive compared with suture to adhere the graft.
Methods: :
Data from all patients who underwent pterygium excision with grafting at Parkland Memorial Hospital between April 1, 2006 and March 31, 2007. Patients were divided into groups based on whether the graft was secured using suture or fibrin glue. Data analyzed included age, race, gender, eye, ocular comorbidity, status of pterygium (primary vs. recurrent), type of graft (conjunctival autograft vs. amniotic membrane), use of mitomycin-c, post-operative pain score, complications, recurrences, and length of follow-up. Patients were excluded if they had less than 14 days of postoperative follow-up. Statistical analysis was performed using t-test, Fisher exact test and chi-square test. P equaled 0.05 for significance.
Results: :
Thirty-six eyes of 33 patients were included in the analysis; 23 patients had their graft secured with fibrin tissue adhesive while the other 13 had sutured grafts. The two groups had similar rates of recurrence, with 5 recurrences in each group comprising 21.7% of the glue cohort and 38.5% of the suture cohort (p=0.44). The use of amniotic membrane or MMC did not effect recurrence rates (p=0.71 and p=1.0). There was also no difference in recurrence rate based on whether it was a primary or recurrent pterygium (p=0.40). The fibrin glue group experienced significantly less pain postoperatively than the suture group (p=0.01). There were no failed grafts or serious postoperative complications in either group.
Keywords: pterygium • clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: systems/equipment/techniques • wound healing