LIMBAL-CONJUNCTIVAL AUTOGRAFT TRANSPLANTATION IN CASES WITH RECURRENTPTERYGIUM

This prospective study was undertaken to evaluate limbal conjunctival autotransplantattion in the management of cases with recurrent pterygi um. At present, new surgical techniques to prevent pterygium recurrenc e following surgery are in investigation. In recent years, it has been postulated that pterygium is due to hypofunction of limbal, stem cell s. Thirty-one out of 49 patients with recurrent pterygium were treated by limbal-conjunctival autograft transplantation and the other 18 tre ated by Czermak technique, including two line of limbal cauterization intraoperatively, and used as a control group. During a mean follow-up period of 10 months (ranging 3-18 months), 4 recurrences (15.3%) in t he limbal-conjunctival autograft transplantation group and 9 recurrenc es (50%) in the control group were observed. We conclud that this was a successful method to prevent secondary recurrence in the management of recurrent pterygium patients under 40 years of age.