COMPARING BETWEEN PRESSURE PATCH, TARSORRHAPHY AND NON-PATCH EYE ON THE CORNEAL EPITHELIAL HEALING RATE AFTER KERALOPLASTY

Corneal epithelial defect is one of the earlier complication after keratoplasty. Therapeutic methods for enhancement of epithelial healing rate are of paramount importance for maintaining corneal graft clarity and for prevention of development of graft ulcer.In this prospective clinical the efficacy of pressure patch, tarsorrhaphy and non-patch eye methods on the corneal epithelial healing rate after keratoplasty were compared.For this purpose, 69 eyes from 69 patients with average-age of 56.6 yrs, without considering causes of keratoplasty, were assigned randomly into three treatment groups. In order to evaluate corneal healing rate, all patients were examined daily with slit lamp biomicroscope for measurement of maximum and minimum dimension of the corneal epithelial defect following staining with sterile flureosien stripe. The results showed the rate of reduction in diameter of corneal epithelial defect in pressure patch group to be 3.292  0.82 mm/ day compared with 2.221  1.129 mm/day in tarsorrhaphy and 2.370  1.105 mm /day in non- patch eye groups.These findings suggest a faster corneal epithelial healing rate in pressure patch group after keratoplasty (P<0.01). However, there was no significant difference between tarsorrhaphy with non patch eye on the epithelial healing rate (P>0.1).