Novel clinical application of sterilized, freeze-dried amniotic membrane to treat patients with pterygium

Purpose: To evaluate the use of sterilized, freeze-dried amniotic membrane (FD-AM) transplantation for pterygium surgery. Methods: This study involved a prospective, non-comparative, interventional case series. Thirteen eyes of 13 patients with primary (eight eyes) or recurrent (five eyes) pterygium were studied. After excision of the pterygium fibrous tissues and application of intraoperative use of mitomycin-C, sterilized FD-AM was sutured over the bare scleral defect. The integrity of the FD-AM graft, epithelialization over the FD-AM, pterygium recurrence and postoperative complications were evaluated. Results: Postoperatively, the FD-AM was well retained in all patients, and complete epithelialization over the transplanted membrane was achieved within 1-2 weeks. All patients demonstrated early resolution of ocular inflammation and there was no recurrence of pterygium in any of the treated patients during the mean follow-up of 13.9 +/- 6.0 months. No ocular complications were noted following transplantation. Conclusions: Sterilized FD-AM showed excellent biocompatibility on the human ocular surface. This novel and promising biomaterial may be a useful alternative to conjunctival grafting in the treatment of pterygium.