title: Clinical outcomes of amniotıc membrane transplantatıon in patients with corneal and conjunctival disorders.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the effectiveness of amniotic membrane transplantation (AMT) in management of corneal and conjunctival diseases in large clinical series.
  
  
  METHODS
  130 patients who had undergone AMT between February 2004-March 2011 were evaluated. The cases were selected from two main groups: corneal (105) and conjunctival disorders (25). Results were analyzed by ANOVA test defining the outcomes as success, recurrence, and failure. P values less than 0.1 were defined as significant. The success criteria of the corneal group was complete re-epitelization of cornea in the first month and formation of a deep anterior chamber. The success criteria of conjunctival disorders was regarded as complete re-epitelization by the fifteenth day of follow-up.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The cornea healed satisfactorily 85.7% of the corneal group and the success rate of conjunctival group was 92% (p=0.524 for success and p=0.245 for recurrence). There was not a significant difference between subgroups (p=0.167 for cornea subgroups and p=1.00 for conjunctiva subgroups). Corneal epithelial defect rapidly healed and there was significant visual acuity improvement after AMT (p=0.001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  AMT is effective to promote corneal healing in patients with persistent epithelial defect and appeared to be helpful after surgery to release pain. It can be successfully used as an alternative to conjunctival autograft for conjunctival surface reconstruction.
authors.affiliation: Bolu Gerede State Hospital, Ophthalmology Department, Bolu, Turkey. drtubacelikyahoo.com
authors.forename: Tuba
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Celik
authors.forename: Yasemin Arslan
authors.initials: YA
authors.lastname: Katircioglu
authors.forename: Evin
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Singar
authors.forename: Mustafa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kosker
authors.forename: Koray
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Budak
authors.forename: Remzi
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kasim
authors.forename: Sunay
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Duman
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000650:Amnion / Q000637:transplantation*; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D002648:Child; D003229:Conjunctival Diseases / Q000601:surgery*; D003316:Corneal Diseases / Q000601:surgery*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012008:Recurrence; D014792:Visual Acuity; D055815:Young Adult