SUMMARY
Purpose:
To compare corneal epithelium healing of rabbit eyes with partial keratoconjunctival and conjunctival limbal deficiency with normal corneas (controls).
Methods:
Partial limbal deficiency (PDL) was created by surgical removal of one third of the superior limbal zone by performing a partial-thickness corneal incision at 2 mm from the limbus (Group 1) and bythe removal of conjunctival limbus without corneal dissection (Group 2). All operated eyes and control underwent two consecutive alkali burns.
Results:
Afterthe two alkali burns, the eyes ofGroup 1 had a delayed epithelial healing curve when compared with controls (p < 0.05); eyes ofGroup 2 and the controls had similar healingcurves. Corneas ofboth groups showed greater vascularization than controls but there was no significant difference. The occurrence of stromal transient opacities was greater in Group 1 when compared with controls (p < 0.05). There was only one case of permanent opacity, vascularization and persistent epithelial defects that belonged to Group 1. Cytologic evaluation showed normal epithelial corneal cells except for one case of Group 1 which showed goblet cells on the superior cornea.
Conclusions:
These results supportthe concept that in PLD corneas the epithelium is still impaired after a moderate corneal burn and that keratoconjunctival limbal removal causes a worse PLD than conjunctival limbal removal, a relatively less invasive procedure.
Keywords:
Limbal transplantation; Limbal deficiency; Chemical injuries; Stem cells