Surgical treatment of children blinded by Stevens-Johnson syndrome

PURPOSE: The surgical treatment of severe Stevens-Johnson syndrome is considered to be very difficult, especially in children. However, ocular surface reconstruction is possible in certain cases. METHODS: We have performed ocular surface reconstruction by allogeneic corneal epithelial stem cell transplantation in four children blinded by Stevens-Johnson syndrome. RESULTS: Two cases failed, and the other two had excellent results. The successful cases had good lacrimal function and conjunctival epithelium, with clear corneal stroma and pathology limited to the superficial ocular tissue, whereas the failures did not. CONCLUSIONS: The successful ocular surface reconstruction has been stable for more than 1 year in two cases, suggesting that some patients with Stevens-Johnson syndrome are very good candidates for ocular surface reconstruction, especially when the patients have good tear function and healthy conjunctival epithelium. (C) 1999 by Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.