Pterygium Surgery

Pterygium surgery is the surgical removal of a pterygium, a fleshy growth of the conjunctiva that can extend onto the cornea, and is generally reserved for cases where the growth causes visual problems or symptoms that artificial tears and other measures cannot manage. The most common technique is conjunctival auto-grafting, in which the surgeon removes the pterygium along with the underlying Tenon's layer and covers the bare sclera with a graft of healthy conjunctival tissue taken from elsewhere in the same eye, attached with sutures or tissue adhesive. An alternative technique, amniotic membrane transplantation, covers the bare sclera instead with tissue taken from the innermost layer of the human placenta, attached with sutures or adhesive. A pterygium recurs in around half of cases after surgery, and studies have found lower recurrence rates with conjunctival autografting than with amniotic membrane transplantation at six months.