Amniotic membrane application in surgical treatment of conjunctival tumors

Abstract

Abstract The amniotic membrane (AM) has special properties, making it ideal for clinical applications in various surgical fields like ophthalmology. It is used more frequently to cover conjunctival and corneal defects. In our retrospective study we have been combined 68 patients with epibulbar conjunctival tumors they have been surgically treated in the period of 2011–2021. Seven (10.3%) patients have been treated with AM application after surgical removal of the tumor. 54 (79%) cases were malignant, and 14 (21%) were benign. In the analyzed dataset the males had just slightly higher chance of malignancy than females, 80% versus 78.3%. For the significancy calculation the Fisher exact test was used and the result proved no significancy (p = 0.99). Six patients with AM application were malignant. The observed difference in the number of quadrants of the bulbar conjunctiva infiltrated versus significant malignancy with p = 0.050 calculated by Fisher Exact test and with p = 0.023 calculated by Likelihood-ratio test. The results of our study indicate that AM grafts are an effective alternative to cover defects after removal of epibulbar lesions due to their anti-inflammatory properties because the conjunctiva must be preserved, and especially the most important application is in malignant epibulbar conjunctival tumors.