Pterygium treatment with limbal-conjunctival autograft transplantation

The objective of this pilot study was to examine the usefulness of limbal autograft transplantation (LCAT) in the treatment of recurrent pterygium. Eleven eyes with advanced recurrent pterygium underwent LCAT. All eyes were previously treated at least two times either by simple excision (10) or conjunctival rotation autograft (1). In two eyes (18.18%) symblepharon was present at the time of surgery, therefore LCAT was combined with amniotic membrane transplantation. Limbal-conjunctival autograft was taken from supero-lateral part of the same eye and transferred to the area where pterygium was excised. No intraoperative complications occurred. In ten eyes (90.9%) no pterygium recurrence was recorded during the follow-up time, and one (9.1%) recurrence was recorded after 5 months. In two eyes with combined symblepharon formation remission of both pterygium and symblepharon growth was obtained. LCAT proved to be a promising and safe procedure in recurrent pterygium treatment.