Amniotic membrane graft for primary pterygium: comparison with conjunctival autograft and topical mitomycin C treatment

Aim-To study the efficacy and safety of amniotic membrane graft as an adjun ctive therapy after removal of primary pterygium, and to compare the clinic al outcome with conjunctival autograft and topical mitomycin C. Methods-80 eyes of 71 patients with primary pterygia were treated with exci sion followed by amniotic membrane graft. The result was compared retrospec tively with 56 eyes of 50 patients receiving conjunctival autograft, and 54 eyes of 46 patients receiving topical mitomycin C. Patients were followed for at least 6 months, and the averaged follow up periods for the three gro ups were 13.8, 22.8, and 18.4 months, respectively. Results-There were three recurrences (3.8%) in the amniotic membrane graft group, three recurrences (5.4%) in the conjunctival autograft group, and tw o recurrences (3.7%) in the topical mitomycin C group. There was no signifi cant difference in recurrence rate among the three groups (p = 0.879). No m ajor complications occurred in the amniotic membrane graft group or the con junctival autograft group. One case of infectious scleritis due to scleral ischaemia occurred in the topical mitomycin C group. Conclusion-This study showed that amniotic membrane graft was as effective as conjunctival autograft and mitomycin C in preventing pterygium recurrenc e, and can be considered as a preferred grafting procedure for primary pter ygium.