[Effect of seawater soaking on corneal epidermis injury].
OBJECTIVE
Use slit lamp microscope and optical microscope to observe the changes in corneal tissue after corneal epidermis injury and the effect of seawater soaking on the healing of cornea after explosive injury.


METHODS
Corneal epidermis were scraped on 20 eyes of 10 adult grey rabbits. For each rabbit, the right eye was in experiment and the left one was for comparison. After the injury, the experimental eyes were soaked in seawater for 30 minutes and the comparable eyes were soaked in 0.9% sodium chloride injection for the same time. All eyes were underwent slit lamp examinations, fluorescein dyeing, and ultrasonic cornea thickness metering on the corneas before the injury and 1, 3, 5, 7, 10 days after the injury respectively. At the same time, 2 rabbits were killed and the eyes were examined with pathology. The cornea thickness numbers were compared using self-comparison t test and grouping t test. Result after scraping the whole corneal epidermis, slit lamp microscope examination found that the corneas were edema and turbidity, the experimental eyes were stricter than the comparable eyes. The corneas of the experimental eye were vascularized 10 days after the injury. Fluorescein dyeing showed that more apparent pigmentation was found on the experimental eyes than that on the comparable ones. Comparative examination under the optical microscope showed that the corneal tissue of the experiment eyes changed distinctly, its inflammation is patency and healing was delayed and the vascularization degree became high after the injury. Cornea thickness of the experimental eyes became apparently thicker than that of the comparable eyes. The difference was statistically significant.


CONCLUSIONS
Seawater soaking will have bad effects on the healing of the corneal epidermis injury.
Chen
Suihua
S
Department of Ophthalmology, Department of Pathology, General Hospital of Nanjing Command PLA Nanjing 210002, China.
Huang
Zhenping
Z
Wang
Lili
L
Jiang
Tao
T
Wu
Bo
B
Ma
Henghui
H
D000818:Animals; D003315:Cornea / Q000473:pathology*; D019573:Epithelium, Corneal / Q000293:injuries* / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D011817:Rabbits; D012623:Seawater / Q000737:chemistry*