[Clinical management of severe ocular surface disease].

Severe ocular surface diseases, such as Stevens-Johnson syndrome, ocular cicatricial pemphigoid or severe ocular burns may result in a significant loss of corneal stem cells, eventually leading to vision impairment or even corneal blindness. In case of unilateral involvement, limbal autografting, by means of transplanting limbal stem cells from the healthy fellow eye, has proved to be an effective procedure for restoring the integrity of the ocular surface. Limbal allografts may be performed in patients with bilateral disease, however, systemic immunosuppression is mandatory in these cases, with a long-term outcome that is frequently reduced compared to limbal autografts due to acute or chronic graft rejection. In recent years, amniotic membrane transplantation has been successfully employed as an additional tool in ocular surface reconstruction. The AlphaCor synthetic cornea, which is made of flexible acrylic may be considered as an alternative in patients with repeated corneal graft failures. Both limbal transplantation and the AlphaCor have been shown to be effective in eyes with an adequate tear film, but are most likely to fail in severe dry eyes or in patients with cicatrising diseases. Such conditions are the domain of keratoprostheses (KPros) with rigid optics, which certainly can be considered as the 'last resort' to restore vision in patients with profound corneal blindness not amenable to conventional corneal and limbal grafting. The osteo-odonto-keratoprosthesis according to Strampelli and modified by Falcinelli makes use of a "biological" support consisting of a longitudinal section of one of the patient's teeth that is also supported by the surrounding alveolar bone tissue. Compared to other devices favourable long-term results have been reported. In patients lacking any usable teeth, implantation of a keratoprosthesis with haptics made of Dacron (Pintucci-KPro) or tibial bone (Temprano-KPro) might be considered.