Lamellar Keratoplasty Treatment of Fungal Corneal Ulcers With Acellular Porcine Corneal Stroma

• DOI: 10.1111/ajt.13096
• Publication Date: 2015-03-11T19:20:56Z
• Authors: M.-C. Zhang; X. Liu; Y. Jin; D.-L. Jiang; X.-S. Wei; H.-T. Xie
• Keywords: Corneal Neovascularization; Economic shortage; Corneal Transplant; Graft rejection

The fundamental problem of corneal transplantation is a severe shortage donor tissues worldwide, resulting in approximately 1.5 million new cases blindness annually. To explore an alternative to corneas, we conducted clinical study which implanted acellular porcine stromas (APCSs) replaced the pathologic anterior corneas 47 patients who had experienced fungal infections. Subsequently, demonstrated safety and efficacy APCSs human keratoplasty for minimum follow-up period 6 months, during time no recurrence infection was observed. All ulcers healed with return neovascularization. In addition, our results indicated that epithelialization occurred all APCS grafts except four grafts; these four, dissolved varying degrees. Furthermore, most (n = 41) gradually became transparent without rejection, improvement more than two lines best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) achieved 34 eyes (∼72%). Finally, showed any adverse reaction or significant change postoperative systemic indicators. Thus, concluded are safe efficacious lamellar treating potentially other diseases.