Corneal Topographic Changes After Two Different Grafting Pterygium Surgery Techniques

Abstract

Background: Surgical treatment of pterygium can result in corneal topographic changes. It is not clear that those changes are universal or technique dependent. Objectives: Evaluation of corneal topographic changes following pterygium surgery using sutured conjunctival autografting versus sutured amniotic membrane grafting. Patients and methods: In this prospective randomized study, patients suffering from primary pterygia that extend between two and four millimeters over the cornea were included. Patients were separated into group I; underwent pterygium excision with sutured conjunctival autograft, and group II underwent pterygium excision with sutured amniotic membrane graft after a comprehensive ophthalmic examination. The following topographic parameters were noted: the axial curvature map, elevation posterior map, and corneal thickness map. Results: Significant improvement of the mean visual acuity measured using the logMAR test was found in both groups postoperatively. The improvement included UCVA and BCVA as well as anterior keratmetric and cylindrical power of the cornea without significant dissimilarity between study groups. No statistically considerable changes in the posterior corneal surface or the corneal thickness were found. Conclusions: Pterygium excision can cause changes in the keratmetric and cylindrical power of the cornea without the affection of the posterior corneal surface or the corneal thickness. The corneal topographic changes caused by the pterygium were not varied with the type of surgical technique used.