Purpose: To investigate the clinical characteristics of Mooren ulcer and elucidate the relationship between its treatment and prognosis.
Methods: This study included 53 eyes of 33 patients (20 males and 13 females; mean age, 56.5±11.7 years; range, 36-85 years; 17 unilateral cases and 16 bilateral cases) with Mooren ulcer, who visited Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine between January, 2009 and December, 2010. Corneal perforation was noted at the initial examination in 12 eyes.
Results: We treated 45 eyes of 29 patients at our department. Twenty-eight eyes among 34 eyes without perforation improved with conservative treatment in the form of betamethasone eye drops and/or oral cyclosporine administration. Surgical treatment was performed in 15 eyes, including nine with corneal perforation and six without perforation. This included lamellar keratoplasty (two eyes), combination of lamellar keratoplasty and limbal allograft/keratoepithelioplasty (seven eyes), and limbal allograft/keratoepithelioplasty (six eyes). A final visual acuity of ≥ 1.0 was achieved in 24 eyes among the 34 eyes without perforation, but only in two eyes among 11 eyes with perforation.
Conclusions: Mooren ulcer mainly develops in middle-aged to elderly subjects and is accompanied by perforation in 23% of cases. In cases with no or low response to conservative treatment, surgical interventions such as keratoepithelioplasty are effective.
Nippon Ganka Gakkai Zasshi (J Jpn Ophthalmol Soc) 122: 287-292, 2018.