Simultaneous surgical management of unilateral limbal stem cell deficiency and symblepharon post chemical burn.

A 6-year-old female child presented with severe acute ocular chemical burn in the right eye 2 days after injury with cement. She underwent removal of all foreign bodies from the ocular surface and amniotic membrane transplantation. Three months later, she developed unilateral total limbal stem cell deficiency (LSCD) with symblepharon in two quadrants. Three months after the acute injury, the patient underwent autologous simple limbal epithelial transplant in the right eye with one-clock hour of limbus harvested from the left eye. At the same sitting, she underwent symblepharon release in two quadrants of the right eye with conjunctival autograft harvested from the left eye followed by conjunctival graft suturing to the areas of bare sclera in the right eye. One year after surgery, the patient's visual acuity improved from counting fingers close to face preoperatively to 20/50 (uncorrected) with no recurrence of LSCD or symblepharon. © BMJ Publishing Group Limited 2020. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.