Abstract
Purpose: :
To investigate the efficacy of amniotic membrane transplantation(AMT) as a permanent patch graft in the treatment of various ocular surface diseases.
Methods: :
The medical records of the 63 patients who had undergone AMT permanently were retrospectively reviewed. The amniotic patches were grafted for the treatment of neurotrophic ulcers (n=15), inflammatory corneal ulcers (n=16), inflammatory or non–inflammatory scleral ulcers (n=11), painful bullous keratopathy even with any medication or therapeutic lens wear (n=8) and pterygium as an adjuvant with conjunctival autograft to inhibit recurrence (n=13). The overall success rate, the interval to epithelization, pain–subsiding time, mean frequencies of the transplantation, and complication were evaluated.
Results: :
Mean follow–up was 10.7 months. The success rate in the patients with neurotrophic ulcer, inflammatory corneal ulcer, scleral ulcer and bullous keratopathy were 93.3%, 66.7%, 92.9% and 100% respectively. Conjunctival autograft with AMT showed 100% of success without recurrence during follow–up. AMT was repeated 4.1±2.3 times in 80% of inflammatory ulcers to achieve successful epithelialization. Each time to re–epithelization was 24.4±24.2, 20.4±5.8, and 16.9±7.0 days in patients with neurotrophic, inflammatory and scleral ulcers, respectively(p=0.431, independent t test). Pain–subsiding time was 25.8±19.9 days in intolerable bullous keratopathy. One case of infection was developed after AMT.
Conclusions: :
AMT showed high success with low complication in the treatment of neurotrophic, scleral ulcer, bullous keratopathy and pterygium, presenting partial success in the treatment of inflammatory corneal ulcers.
Keywords: clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: outcomes/complications • cornea: clinical science • cornea: epithelium