Novel technique for amniotic membrane transplantation for acute Stevens-Johnson syndrome/toxic epidermal necrolysis patients

PURPOSE: To report a novel technique to facilitate amniotic membrane transplantation (AMT) for acute stage Stevens-Johnson syndrome (SJS) and toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN). DESIGN: Laboratory investigation and retrospective, single-center case series. METHODS: The polylactic acid (PLA) amniotic fornical ring (AFR) have been successfully manufactured by three-dimensional (3D) printing technology for AMT. This study retrospectively analyzed the medical records of 5 SJS/TEN patients at the acute stage between 2019 and 2023. Patients were surgically treated with AFR or sutured amniotic membrane transplant (SAMT). Epidemiology, best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA), acute ocular severity score, operative duration, epithelial healing time, amniotic dissolution and follow-up time were evaluated. RESULTS: Of all five patients, three patients (6 eyes) received AFR/AMT (Group A), and 2 patients (4 eyes) received SAMT (Group B). There were no significant differences between two groups in the mean preoperative days and vision changes. The mean operation duration was 11.7 ± 3.8 mins in group A. Compared with the SAMT (48.8 ± 5.3 mins), the operation duration was reduced by 76.02%. The mean times for epithelial healing were 32.5 ± 29.2 days in group A and 12.0 ± 0.0 days in group B. In addition, there were no significant side effects of 3D-printed sterile AFR on the eyes. CONCLUSIONS: 3D-printed PLA scaffolds could be used as an AFR device for acute SJS/TEN. In addition, personalized 3D-printed AFR is superior to conventional SAMT in operation duration.