The Comparison of the Corneal Epithelial Healing According to Treatment Modalities in Rabbit

Kim, Y H; Lee, D H; Lew, H M

Abstract

To compare the healing processes according to treatment modalities, corneal epithelial wound was created with 99% ethylalcohol in rabbit. The wounds were treated with tarsorrhaphy, hyaluronic acid, epidermal growth factor and autoserum, respectively. We compared the corneal epithelial healing process of each groups by measuring the healing area according to the time and the histologic finding stained with Hematoxylin-Eosin of the extracted corneal tissue, 2 days after completion of wound healing. Comparison of the epithelial wound healing rate between the control group (0.9769 +/-0.1999 mm2/hr) and the treatment groups showed the fastest healing rate in tarsorrhaphy (1.3697 +/-0.3146 mm2/hr) followed by autoserum (1.3267 +/-0.1108 mm2/hr), hyaluronic acid (1.2790 +/-0.1717 mm2/hr) and epidermal growth factor (1.0465 +/-0.1461 mm2/hr). The groups treated with autoserum (P=0.006), hyaluronic acid (P=0.028) and tarsorrhaphy (P=0.045) showed sta- tistically significant faster healing rates. The histologic findings 2 days after completion of wound healing showed epithelial hyperplasia in 1 of 2 eyes treated with tarsorrhaphy or epidermal growth factor, and showed normal findings in the other groups. In conclusion, this study shows faster healing rates and normal histologic findings in the hyaluronic acid and autoserum groups. And these methods are thought to be effective in healing of the corneal epithelial wound.