Releasable Suture versus Autologous Blood for Pterygium Surgery using Conjunctival Autografts

To evaluate the efficacy of releasable single suture (RS) for conjunctival autograft (CAG) and to compare it with sutureless gluefree (SG) technique in pterygium surgery.

We conducted a retrospective comparative study on patients with primary pterygium who underwent CAG. In 150 patients, CAG was additionally secured by a single 10-0 nylon releasable suture (RS) which was released on the first postoperative day. In 47 patients, no suture was applied, and CAG was allowed to stick to the scleral bed by autologous fibrin only (SG group). The duration of surgery and size of CAG (in mm2 ) was noted in both groups. All patients completed one year of follow-up. Factors that were studied included graft stability, patient comfort, complications, and recurrence.

The mean age of patients in RS and SG groups was 39.6 ± 11.8 and 47.3 ± 13.8 years, respectively. The mean duration of surgery was 4.84 ± 1.34 min in RS group and 4.90 ± 1.42 min in SG group (P = 0.001). The size of CAG used in both groups was comparable with more stability in RS group postoperatively. Graft retraction rate in RS group was 5.3% (1 mm retraction in CAG more than 36 mm2 ) with no event of graft loss. The graft loss occurred in 6.3% of eyes in SG group. The recurrence rate in RS group was 4%, while in SG group it was 6.3% (P = 0.4).

RS, by augmenting the autologous blood mechanism, may offer an easy to learn option for pterygium surgery with good stability even in large sized CAGs.