Comparison of efficacy of three suture methods in pterygium conjunctival transplantation

Objective

To evaluate the efficacy of embedding suture in pterygium excision combined with autologous conjunctival transplantation, and to compare the differences between embedding suture, continuous suture and intermittent suture.

Methods

A randomized controlled study was conducted.One hundred and twenty patients (120 eyes) with primary pterygium, who underwent pterygium excision combined with autologous conjunctival transplantation in Shanghai Aier Eye Hospital from May to July 2020, were enrolled.The patients were randomly divided into the embedding suture group, continuous suture group and interrupted suture group, with 40 eyes in each group.The operation duration was recorded and the patients received follow-up visit at 0.5, 1, 3, 7, 10, 14 days and 1, 3 and 6 months after the operation.The five-point method was used to record the postoperative pain score.The corneal epithelial healing was evaluated by sodium fluorescein staining.The complications such as graft detachment, graft displacement or pterygium recurrence were observed with a slit lamp microscope.This study adhered to the Declaration of Helsinki.The study protocol was approved by an Ethics Committee of Shanghai Aier Eye Hospital (No.SHAIER2020RB03). Written informed consent was obtained from each subject before any medical examination.

Results

The operation time of continuous suture, interrupted suture and embedding suture was (14.45±2.78), (16.28±2.24) and (16.58±2.22) minutes, respectively, and the overall difference was statistically significant (F=8.98, P<0.05). The operation time of continuous suture was significantly shorter than that of interrupted suture and embedding suture (both at P<0.017), and there was no significant difference between embedding suture and interrupted suture (P>0.017). There was a statistically significant overall difference in pain scores among the three groups at various time points after the operation (P<0.05). At 0.5, 1, 3, 7 and 10 days after the operation, the pain scores of embedding suture were lower than those of continuous suture and interrupted suture (all at P<0.05). On the 7th day after the operation, there was no significant difference in the unhealed rate of corneal epithelium among the three groups (P=1.000). On the 10th day after the operation, the corneal epithelia of the three groups were all healed.During the six months after the operation, no complications such as displacement, detachment, necrosis, infection of graft and eye movement disorder occurred in the three groups.There was no significant difference in the recurrence rate of pterygium (P=1.000).

Conclusions

Embedding suture method can effectively reduce the irritation symptoms after pterygium conjunctival transplantation, and has stable fixation of implants.Compared with the traditional interrupted suture, it does not increase the recurrence rate, incidence of adverse reactions, operation time and economic burden of patients.