Purpose: To compare the safety and efficacy of limbal versus conjunctival autograft transplantation for treating advanced and recurrent pterygia.
Design: Randomized, prospective clinical trial.
Participants: Seventy-nine patients with advanced primary or recurrent pterygia treated by conjunctival (n = 36) or limbal-conjunctival (n = 43) autograft transplantation.
Intervention: Twenty four eyes with primary and 12 eyes with recurrent pterygia underwent free conjunctival autograft transplantation (group A), and 28 eyes with primary and 15 eyes with recurrent pterygia underwent limbal-conjunctival autograft transplantation (group B).
Main outcome measures: Recurrence of pterygium and complications.
Results: With a 3-year minimum of follow-up, 2 cases of primary (8.3%) and 4 cases of recurrent (33.3%) pterygia in group A showed recurrence. No patients in group B developed recurrence.
Conclusions: In this study both techniques were effective in cases of advanced primary pterygia with no statistically significant difference. Limbal transplantation appeared more effective than free conjunctival transplantation for treatment of recurrent pterygia (P < 0.05).