A Comparative Study Of Lamellar Keratoplasty And Conjunctival Flap Surgery In The Treatment Of Feline Corneal Ulcer

As a common ophthalmic disease in pet clinical practice,deep corneal ulcer is often treated with conjunctival flap surgery in addition to conventional medication.However,the poor transparency after recovery can affect the animal’s vision.Therefore,finding a way to cure corneal ulcers while maintaining corneal transparency is an urgent need in pet medical care.In this study,conjunctival flap surgery and corneal lamellar keratoplasty were compared in terms of corneal opacity,epithelial defect area,corneal edema,therapeutic effect,healing time,and surgical duration.Twelve experimental animals with completely healthy corneas and no other diseases were selected for the experiment.After creating artificial corneal ulcers in both eyes,conjunctival flap surgery was performed on the left eye,and corneal lamellar keratoplasty was performed on the right eye.After the surgery,the animals were treated with antibiotic eye drops,autologous serum,recombinant bovine basic fibroblast growth factor eye drops,as well as systemic antibiotics and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs in the same environment.The surgical duration,corneal opacity after surgery,neovascularization,epithelial defect area,corneal edema,healing time,and effective rate were observed and recorded.The experimental results showed that,compared with the conjunctival flap group,the corneal edema score was significantly higher in the corneal lamellar grafting group within 3 weeks after surgery.The healing time and epithelial defect area were similar to the conjunctival flap group,while the corneal opacity in the corneal lamellar grafting group was significantly lower than that in the conjunctival flap group after 4 weeks,and the corneal lamellar grafting group had a higher effective rate.The surgical duration of the two surgeries was not significantly different under the same operator.This study suggests that corneal lamellar keratoplasty can be applied in the clinical treatment of cat corneal ulcers and effectively promote corneal healing while maintaining corneal transparency.It provides a new treatment method for corneal ulcer in pet clinical practice.