Correspondence
Treatment of corneal edema secondary to chemical burn by Descemet membrane endothelial keratoplasty (DMEK)

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Case Report

A healthy 36-year-old woman suffered a sulfuric acid injury to both eyes in September 2014 and underwent medical and surgical therapy, including conjunctival coverage in both eyes in 2015 (externally). No further information was available about the status of the limbal stem cells in the early course after the chemical burn. A year later, she presented at the Department of Ophthalmology, University of Cologne with a complaint of ocular pain and foreign body sensation in the left eye and poor

Discussion

Most ocular chemical burns are occupation-related injuries.1, 8 Our patient suffered a severe sulfuric acid injury in a laboratory at her workplace, a very strong acid which in high concentrations can pass through the cornea.9, 10 The patient historically developed elevated IOPs in the acute phase after injury and was successfully treated. The IOP then normalized without any further treatment. Transient IOP could have been due to inflammation after the chemical burn, especially as glaucoma was

Financial Support

German Research Foundation (DFG) FOR2240 “(Lymph)angiogenesis and Cellular Immunity in Inflammatory Diseases of the Eye,” Cu 47/4-2 (CC), Cu 47/6-1 (CC), Cu 47/9-1 (CC), (www.for2240.de); EU COST BM1302 (CC; www.biocornea.eu); EU Horizon 2020 ARREST BLINDNESS (CC; www.arrestblindness.eu); Center for Molecular Medicine Cologne, University of Cologne (CC; www.cmmc-uni-koeln.de/home/); DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service, VNHL).

Author Contributions

Conception and study design: Le, Cursiefen Literature search and figure creation: Le Analysis and interpretation: Le, Avgitidou, Bachmann, Cursiefen Data collection: Le, Avgitidou, Bachmann Overall responsibility: Le, Cursiefen.

Disclosure

The authors have no proprietary or commercial interest in any materials discussed in this article.

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    Western blotting revealed a significant decrease in MMP12 (p = 0.036), PDGF-BB (p = 0.031) and AQP5 (p = 0.022) in the LBP 2 (+injury) group compared to that of the injury group, with a trend showed a decreased amount of IL-1β in LBP 2 (+injury) group (Fig. 6C). Corneal epithelial layer loss and stromal edema are events that occur after corneal chemical burn (Hung Le et al., 2019). These changes eventually result in opportunistic infection and stromal scarring at the later stage.

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