Case Report
Combination Topical Heparan Mimetic with Amniotic Membrane Transplantation for Non-healing Herpetic Neurotrophic Corneal Ulcer
Elizabeth S.J. Baek and Deric De Wit*
Correspondence Address :
Deric De Wit
110 Carthage
Street, Tamworth, NSW, Australia 2340
Tel: +61
488262947
Email: docderic@gmail.com
Received on: June 29, 2017, Accepted on: July 20, 2017, Published on: July 28, 2017
Citation: Elizabeth S.J. Baek, Deric De Wit (2017). Combination Topical Heparan Mimetic with Amniotic Membrane Transplantation for Nonhealing Herpetic Neurotrophic Corneal Ulcer
Copyright: 2017 Deric De Wit, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits
unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
A rural based 74-year-old female patient developed a persistent herpetic epithelial ulcer after prolonged hospitalisation for heart failure, with no improvement despite 4 weeks of topical antibiotic and artificial tears. Heparan sulfate mimetic (RGTA, Cacicol20) was then used, with a dosage of two eye drops per week for 3 weeks followed by cryopreserved amniotic membrane graft transplant (AMT). Improvement was observed within 2 weeks of RGTA, complete healing with 6/12 improvement of vision post-AMT within a total of 5 weeks with no side effects. This sequential use of RGTA followed by AMT in the treatment of rural patients with severe neurotrophic ulcers is a practical therapy showing promising results.