Corneal Graft after Cultivated Oral Mucosal Epithelial ‎Transplantation for Visual Rehabilitation in Chemical Burn

To evaluate result of Corneal graft (PKP) after cultivated oral mucosal epithelial transplantation (COMET) in patients with chemical burn.
In this prospective interventional nonrandomized case series, optical PKP was performed after successful COMET for visual rehabilitation in patients with severe stromal opacity. Main outcome measures were clarity of the corneal graft, visual acuity improvement, and corneal graft survival.
Fourteen eyes of 14 patients with successful COMET were included. Overall, PKP was performed 7.6±1.3 months (6-9 months) after COMET. The mean follow-up period was 28.2±8 months (14-40 months, median 30 months). The time for complete epithelial healing was 7 days in all eyes. There was no epithelial defect in 13 eyes at the final examination. The corneal surface had been covered by a transparent epithelium without significant neovascularization. Bacterial keratitis developed in 1 eye due to persistent epithelial defect, which was healed with vascularization. Best-corrected visual acuity increased from 2.67±0.08 LogMAR preoperatively to 0.64±0.27 LogMAR after PKP (P PKP is a good choice for visual rehabilitation in chemical burn with bilateral total LSCD and severe stromal opacity that underwent successful COMET.