PURPOSE: Assessing the effects of the amniotic membrane transplantation regarding pain relief and improvement of the recurrent epithelial side effects in patients with symptomatic bullous keratopathy and poor vision. METHODS: A prospective survey was conducted with 9 patients, from April/2000 to December/2001 at the "Hospital Universitário Evangélico de Curitiba - HUEC". Before the surgery, the medical records of each patient were studied and a complete ocular examination was performed. The patients were evaluated once a week or more frequently, including the first postoperative (PO), seventh PO, fourteenth PO and thirtieth PO day. A monthly evaluation was performed at the sixth month after the operation. RESULTS: The group consisted of 3 (33.3%) males and 6 (66.6%) females, with age from 29 to 74 years. All patients complained of pain in their eyes, 7 (77.7%) had teary eyes, 8 (88.8%) patients had photophobia and 4 (44.4%) had red eyes. The visual acuity in the preoperative was finger counting in 6 (66.6%) of the patients, hand moving in 2 (22.2%) of the patients and amaurosis in 1 (11.1%) patient. After the procedure, there was a reepithelialization in all patients between the twelfth and the twenty-first postoperative day. The patients seemed to recover from pain and photophobia in the first week after the amniotic membrane transplantation and remained well until the end of follow-up. CONCLUSION: The amniotic membrane has the potential to restore corneal surface in patients with symptomatic bullous keratopathy, reducing very quickly pain in these patients. However, the number of studied patients is small, but this treatment is an alternative that has encouraged us, as well as other researchers, due to the excellent obtained result.
Amnion; Epithelium; Epithelium; Corneal diseases; Biological dressings; Ophthalmologic surgical procedures; Pain; Visual acuity