Purpose: To investigate whether intraoperative application of mitomycin C may enhance the success of amniotic membrane transplantation in symblepharon lysis and fornix reconstruction in severe cicatricial ocular surface diseases.
Design: Noncomparative interventional case series.
Participants: Sixteen patients (8 female, 8 male; 18 eyes) with a mean age of 41+/-23.4 years (range, 3-79) and suffering from severe chemical/thermal burns (7 eyes), multiple recurrent pterygia and pseudopterygia (5 eyes), Stevens-Johnson syndrome (4 eyes), and ocular cicatricial pemphigoid (2 eyes) were consecutively enrolled. All except for 2 eyes had had prior surgical attempts of surgical reconstruction, including 6 eyes with a mucous membrane graft (MMG), but still presented with symblepharon and persistent ocular surface inflammation.
Intervention: After excision of subconjunctival fibrovascular tissues, 0.04% mitomycin C was applied for 5 minutes in the deep fornix before amniotic membrane transplantation.
Main outcome measures: Deeper fornix, noninflamed ocular surface, and full motility.
Results: The mean epithelial healing time was 4.2+/-1.9 weeks. During the follow-up of 14.16+/-5.2 months, all eyes showed a marked reduction of conjunctival inflammation, a deep fornix, and a continuous tear meniscus. Of 12 eyes with motility restriction, 2 eyes with multiple recurrent pterygia and 1 eye with severe thermal burn showed recurrence of partial motility restriction 2 months after surgery. The vision of 9 eyes was successfully restored by an additional keratolimbal allograft with subsequent penetrating keratoplasty (6 eyes).
Conclusion: Intraoperative application of mitomycin C is an effective means to reduce chronic and deep-seated conjunctival inflammation, and helps amniotic membrane restore a deep fornix after symblepharon lysis, even in eyes that had a failed MMG. Restoration of deep fornix and tear meniscus is an important prerequisite to achieve successful reconstruction by subsequent limbal stem cell transplantation.