Limbal Stem Cells Transplantation in the Reconstruction of the Ocular Surface: 6 Years Experience

Abstract

Significantly better long-term outcomes were achieved with autotransplantation of the limbus compared with allogeneic limbal grafts from living-related and cadaveric donors.

Clinical Results and Influential Factors of Modified Large-Diameter Lamellar Keratoplasty in the Treatment of Total Limbal Stem Cell Deficiency

“…10 Of those receiving CLAU transplantation, ocular surface remained stable in 61.9% of the patients after 6 years. 19 Our study showed a similar trend. However, the rates of 58.9% ± 8.5% at 2 years, 51.1% ± 9.0% at 5 years, and 39.3% ± 9.2% at 7 years were much higher than the previous reports.…”

Long-term results of limbal conjunctival autograft transplantation associated with an amniotic membrane in patients with total limbal stem cells deficiency

“…Lang and coauthors [24], has described these as preoperative risk factors for transplant failure; The encouraging aspect of these cases is that despite being considered as a "failure", all these patients experienced improvement of preoperative visual acuity. Our results are very similar to those found by others authors, where failure rate after the transplant has been reported between 6 and 50% [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16]. In addition, the present technique proved to be safe, since 100% of donor's eyes presented adequate healing and no complications in the donor eye.…”

“…Regenerative treatment with stem cells has had a breakthrough in medicine in recent years [5] and the specialty of ophthalmology has not been left behind; the international literature has demonstrated the effectiveness of limbal stem cell transplantation in the treatment of corneal neovascularization [9][10][11][12][13][14][15]; however, there are few studies reporting long term results of this procedure in combination with amniotic membrane use. Corneal neovascularization is characterized by a vascularization of the corneal epithelium, chronic inflammation, epithelial defects, photophobia and loss of vision, leading to blindness where corneal transplants are ineffective because the limbal niche induces corneal rejection.…”

“…At the ocular level since the discovery of stem cells in the corneal limbus by Schermer and coauthors in 1986 [6], many advances have also been made. The concept of limbal transplantation to improve ocular surface was first reported at the First World Congress of Cornea in 1964 by Dr. Barraquer and Strampelli [7]; Then Kenyon and Tseng [8] popularized the limbal transplantation with the CLAU technique (limbal conjunctiva autograft transplantation), and to date, authors have described promising results [9][10][11][12][13][14], however few studies report long term results [15] of this technique.…”

Outcomes of Boston Keratoprosthesis Implantation for Failed Keratoplasty After Keratolimbal Allograft

“…5-8 However, despite promising success rates, significant failure rates at long-term follow-up beyond 2 years, because of both KLAL failure and isolated keratoplasty failure, have been noted. [9][10][11] Solomon et al 9 reported an overall survival of ambulatory vision of only 53.6% at 3 years in their patient cohort, whereas Ilari and Daya 10 reported only 33% graft survival at 3 years in their patient cohort. For this growing population of patients with severe ocular surface disease who have failed PKP after KLAL, evidence to guide subsequent treatment decisions is absolutely critical.…”