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Intraoperative sponge 5-fluorouracil to reduce postoperative scarring in strabismus surgery
J S Mora1, D T Sprunger, E M Helveston
1Department of Ophthalmology, Indiana University, Indianapolis 46202-5175, USA.
Introduction:
To determine whether 5-fluorouracil is effective in reducing scarring after strabismus surgery we used rectus muscle surgery in experimental animals to compare a single intraoperative dose of 5-fluorouracil with mitomycin C and to compare results in similarly treated controls not receiving these antimetabolites.
Methods:
Muscle resections were performed on eight rabbits (16 eyes). Four eyes had 5-fluorouracil (50 mg/ml), and four eyes received mitomycin C (0.2 mg/ml), each of which was applied during surgery on an ophthalmic sponge for 5 minutes. Eight eyes served as controls. Six weeks after surgery conjunctival vascularity, muscle length-tension curves, muscle disinsertion force, and the histologic degree of scarring were assessed.
Results:
The mitomycin C-treated eyes clearly had more conjunctival avascularity and a lower disinsertion force. Both treated groups had flatter length-tension curves and less scarring on histologic examination than the control eyes.
Conclusions:
Antifibroproliferative therapy with intraoperative sponge 5-fluorouracil appears as effective as, and is possibly safer than, mitomycin C. It may be a useful adjunct in recurrent strabismus surgery or in other situations where a risk of excessive postoperative scarring exists.
