Clinical outcome of combined conjunctival autograft transplantation and amniotic membrane transplantation in pterygium surgery

Abstract

Aim: To compare long-term outcome of primary and recurrent pterygium surgery with three different techniques: combined conjunctival autograft and overlay amniotic membrane transplantation (CAT with AMT), conjunctival autograft transplantation (CAT) alone and amniotic membrane transplantation (AMT) alone.

Methods: In this retrospective study, 142 eyes of 142 pterygium patients (104 primary, 38 recurrent) who underwent CAT (group A), AMT (group B) or CAT with AMT (group C) respectively following surgical excision were reviewed and compared based on the recurrences and post-operative complications.

Results: The number of recurrence post-surgery were 17 (9 from primary, 8 from recurrent; the same description below), 18 (10, 8) and 2 (1, 1) in groups A, B, and C respectively; dry eyes were 22 (16, 6), 27 (18, 9) and 7 (3, 4); conjunctival inflammations were 30 (17, 13), 27 (16, 11) and 11 (6, 5). Patients in group C (either primary or recurrent or both) mainly showed significantly better results than those in group A or B (P<0.05) regarding above-mentioned clinical effects.

Conclusion: Combined CAT and overly AMT have significantly lower rates of recurrence and postoperative complications for primary and recurrent pterygium surgery than CAT or AMT alone.

Keywords: amniotic membrane transplantation; conjunctival autograft transplantation; pterygium; surgery.

Figure 1. The representative clinical photographs of pterygium and different techniques of surgeries

A: The representative photo of pterygium before surgery; B: The representative photo of conjunctival autograft transplantation in group A (CAT); C: The representative photo of human sterilized freeze-dried amniotic membrane transplantation in group B (AMT); D: The representative photo of combined use of CAT with AMT in group C.