Survival of Ocular Surface Stem Cell Transplantation for More Than 9 Years
Purpose
To report very long survival of ocular surface transplantations in patients with limbal stem cell deficiency looking for commonalities.
Methods
This retrospective study, involved 20 eyes with total limbal stem cell deficiency undergoing keratolimbal and/or living related conjunctival limbal allograft who had no episodes of rejection and never failed throughout their follow up (minimum 9 years). Demographical and clinical features in common were determined.
Results
Mean follow-up was 135.9 months. 52% of patients were male and 48% were female. The average age of the patients at the time of transplantation was 41.8+-14 years.The most common cause of limbal stem cell deficiency was aniridia comprising 50% of cases. The rate of compliance to immunosupression regiment was 90%. 65%(13/30) of cases had diseases stages IIA or less.
Conclusion
In addition to verifying a strong correlation between compliance and prolonged graft survival, we found that the disease stage was more determining than just the etiology of limbal stem cell deficiency. While the chances of graft failure grow substantially throughout follow up, a fraction of patients will benefit a very long survival of transplants for up a decade and beyond.