A study of clinical characteristics and treatment of Mooren's ulcer

To investigate the clinical characteristics and to compare the effects of several therapies of Mooren's corneal ulcer.

550 consecutive cases of Mooren's corneal ulcer inpatients were analysed, including the age, sex, laterality of the eye, ulcer location, perforative rate, cure rate of surgeries, recurrent rate, and the effects of conjunctiva excision, lamellar keratoplasty (LKP), LKP and plus cyclosporin A eye drop.

The average age of onset of the corneal ulcer was 48.4 years old, the ratio of the male to the female patients was 1:0.74, the bilateral disease was 30% of the total cases, 31.5% of the bilateral disease occurred in the younger group, and 68.5% of the bilateral ulcer occurred in the older group, ulcers located at the limbus of the palpebral fissure were 70% of the total cases, perforative rate was 13.3%, 43.2% of the perforation occurred in the younger group, and 56.8% of the perforation occurred in the older group, recurrent rate of the post-operation was 25.6%, the cure rate of the first procedure of LKP and plus cyclosporin A eye drop was 73.7%, the final cure rate was 95.6%, and the preservative rate of the corneal anatomical structure of the surgeries was 99.7%.

The study primarily provided the clinical characteristics of Mooren's corneal ulcer patients of China. The available data do not support the present concept of the classification of the two clinical types. The bilateral ulcer may be the malignant type of Mooren's ulcer. LKP and plus cyclosporin A eye drop was an effective treatment of Mooren's corneal ulcer.