ABSTRACT
Purpose: To compare and study the clinical outcome of tarsorrhaphy and amniotic membrane transplant in the healing of persistent corneal epithelial defects in terms of clinical improvement and symptomatic relief. Methods: This was an interventional, prospective study in which a total of 60 patients with persistent epithelial defects (PED's), randomly divided into two groups of 30 patients each who underwent tarsorrhaphy (Group A) or amniotic membrane transplantation (Group B) with a 4-week-follow-up period, were included. The main parameters studied were the size of an epithelial defect, total healing time, pain score, and complications. Results: The study included 60 eyes of 60 patients with PED. The healing time was 9.83 � 6.51 days in Group A (median = 9.50 days, IQR = 1�days) vs. 18.33 � 13.46 days (median = 19.50 days, IQR = 1� days) in Group B. A total of ten eyes (16.7%) did not heal at the end of 4 weeks. Conclusion: There was a significant reduction in the area of epithelial defect at the end of the 1 week and 2 week follow up postoperatively, in both the treatment forms. The mean healing time in patients of Group A was less as compared to that of the patients in Group B.
ABSTRACT
Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the serological profile of the eye donors and to study the influence of various factors on serological test results. Methods: A cross-sectional, observational study was conducted, and data of 509 donors were reviewed from the records of eye bank from December 2012 to June 2017. Various details of donors analyzed included the age, sex of the donor, cause of death, source of tissue, time since blood collection after death, macroscopic appearance of blood sample, and details of discarded tissues. Serological examination of blood was performed for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis B virus, hepatitis C virus (HCV), venereal disease research laboratory (VDRL), and serology reports reactive or nonreactive were analyzed. Results: Among the 509 donors, 295 (58%) were male, and 420 (82.50%) belonged to age group ?60 years. Most donors (354, 69.5%) died due to cardiac arrest. Macroscopically, sera were normal in the majority of 488 (95.9%) cases. Among 509 donors, 475 (93.3%) were nonreactive, 12 (2.4%) donors were found to be reactive to hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg), and 1 (0.2%) was reactive to HCV, but no donor serology was reactive to HIV or VDRL. Twenty-one (4.12%) donors' sera were not fit for serological testing. Among all donors, 475 (93.32%) donors were accepted and 34 (6.67%) were rejected or discarded on the basis of serological testing. Cause of death and macroscopic aspect of sera influenced the serological results in a highly significant manner (P = 0.00). Acceptance or rejection of the donor was significantly influenced by the serological results of the donor (P = 0.00). Conclusion: The seroprevalence among eye donor for HBsAg and HCV was 12 (2.4%) and 1 (0.2%), respectively. Factors such as cause of death and macroscopic aspect of sera influence the serological results. Time since blood collection or sampling will not show any impact on viral serological results if postmortem sampling will be done in < 10 hours(h) after death which can improve the safety and utility of the donor cornea.