Elsevier

Ophthalmology

Volume 109, Issue 9, September 2002, Pages 1752-1755
Ophthalmology

Limbal versus conjunctival autograft transplantation for advanced and recurrent pterygium1

Presented in part at the American Academy of Ophthalmology annual meeting, Dallas, Texas, October 2000.
https://doi.org/10.1016/S0161-6420(02)01160-0Get rights and content

Abstract

Purpose

To compare the safety and efficacy of limbal versus conjunctival autograft transplantation for treating advanced and recurrent pterygia.

Design

Randomized, prospective clinical trial.

Participants

Seventy-nine patients with advanced primary or recurrent pterygia treated by conjunctival (n = 36) or limbal-conjunctival (n = 43) autograft transplantation.

Intervention

Twenty four eyes with primary and 12 eyes with recurrent pterygia underwent free conjunctival autograft transplantation (group A), and 28 eyes with primary and 15 eyes with recurrent pterygia underwent limbal-conjunctival autograft transplantation (group B).

Main outcome measures

Recurrence of pterygium and complications.

Results

With a 3-year minimum of follow-up, 2 cases of primary (8.3%) and 4 cases of recurrent (33.3%) pterygia in group A showed recurrence. No patients in group B developed recurrence.

Conclusions

In this study both techniques were effective in cases of advanced primary pterygia with no statistically significant difference. Limbal transplantation appeared more effective than free conjunctival transplantation for treatment of recurrent pterygia (P < 0.05).

Section snippets

Materials and methods

Between January 1995 and April 1997, 86 eyes of 86 consecutive patients meeting eligibility criteria were enrolled in this study. All patients were younger than 40 years (range, 27–39 years) and were followed up for a minimum of 36 months (range, 36–63 months). Criteria for eligibility were: a pterygium extending at least 3 mm beyond the limbus, no other ocular surface pathologic features or infection, and no collagen vascular disease.

Complete ocular examination was carried out and

Results

Seven patients were excluded because their follow-up was less than 1 year because they left the country. Results of 79 patients with advanced primary or recurrent pterygia were included in this study. Of them, 76 were males (96%) and 3 were females (4%), with a mean age of 33 years (range, 27–39 years). The mean follow-up period was 49 months (range, 36–63 months). Patients’ data are shown in Table 1. No statistically significant differences existed between the two groups in preoperative

Discussion

In our prospective, randomized study, we found limbal-cunjunctival autograft transplantation more effective than conjunctival autograft alone in prevention of recurrence after pterygium excision. Although no recurrence was seen in the limbal-conjunctival autograft group, both techniques were effective in cases of advanced primary pterygia, with no statistically significant difference (P = 0.208). In case of recurrent pterygia, limbal-conjunctival autograft was more effective in preventing

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    1

    The author has no proprietary interest in any of the instruments or medications used in this study.

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