Abstract
Purpose :
To study the demographic and clinical profile of patients with limbal stem cell deficiency(LSCD) at Jules Stein Eye Institute, UCLA.
Methods :
Retrospective chart review from 2007 to 2016 was performed. The records of patients with the diagnosis of LSCD were analyzed. Demographic profile, aetiology of LSCD, the severity of LSCD phenotype, and visual outcome were collected.
Results :
A total of 165 subjects diagnosed with total or sectoral LSCD were enrolled, among whom 80 subjects were men and the others were women. The average age was 68.5 ± 18.2 years old (range: 23-102 years). Seventy percent of the subjects were older than 60 years. The races included Caucasian, Asian, African American and American Indian. One hundred and ten patients (66.7%) were unilaterally affected and 55 subjects (33.3%) were bilaterally affected. Total LSCD was found in 94 eyes (42.7%), and sectoral or partial LSCD was found in 126 eyes (57.3%). The number of eyes classified as mild, moderate and severe stage of LSCD were 78 (35.5%), 76 (34.5%) and 66 (30%), respectively. The leading cause for LSCD was multiple ocular surgeries(n=86), followed by chronic ocular surface inflammatory diseases (n=47) including Steven-Johnson Syndrome and mucous membrane pemphigoid, and chemical burn or thermal injury (n=23). The other aetiologies of LSCD included contact lens wear, drug toxicity, aniridia, multiple cryotherapies, radiation keratopathy, chemotherapy, microbial infection and neutrophic keratopathy. Among the cases associated with iatrogenic injury, 24.2% had the history of mitomycin C, 5-FU or both use during the surgeries. The mean and median best corrected LogMar visual acuity was 1.351 ± 1.327 and 0.903, respectively. Ninety-two eyes (41.8%) had best corrected visual acuity less than 20/200. One hundred and thirty-eight eyes (60.9%) had other causes of vision reduction, with glaucoma as the leading cause.
Conclusions :
Limbal stem cell deficiency is more prevalent in the elderlies in this study patient population at a tertiary eye center. The leading cause of LSCD is multiple ocular surgeries and unilateral disease was more common than bilateral disease.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2017 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Baltimore, MD, May 7-11, 2017.