近十年国内眼科领域获得专利项目的分析

目的汇总分析近十年国内眼科领域发明型和实用新型专利的亚领域、申请人及地域分布等特点。 方法在IncoPat科技创新情报平台(简称"ncoPat"，http：//www.incopat.com)，分别以国际专利分类表中A61B3、A61B5/0496、A61B8/10、A61F9、A61H5/00、A61H35/02及A61P27/02-A61P27/14为检索分类号，以眼科亚领域涉及眼科检查或色觉异常、眼睑或眼表、屈光或斜弱视、白内障、青光眼、眼底病及神经眼科或葡萄膜炎或眼眶病方面的关键词作为检索关键词，检索2010年1月1日至2020年7月22日眼科领域的发明型和实用新型专利。逐项记录近十年眼科领域发明型和实用新型专利各年度的数量、各眼科亚领域的数量及占比、发明型专利数量排名前十位申请人及其发明型和实用新型专利的数量以及中国各区域发明型和实用新型专利的数量等指标。将眼科领域各年度的发明型和实用新型专利的数量，以文字、柱形图及折线图的形式进行描述。将各眼科亚领域发明型和实用新型专利数量占眼科领域的发明型和实用新型专利数量的百分比，以文字和饼图的形式进行描述。将眼科领域申请人按发明数量以降序方式排列，取排名前十位的申请人及其发明型和实用新型专利的数量，采用文字和柱形图的形式进行描述。将发明型和实用新型专利的申请人地域分布采用文字和表格的形式进行描述。 结果十年间，国内眼科领域的发明型和实用新型专利共有36 540件。其中，发明型专利24 488件(已授权专利7058件)，实用新型专利12 052件。2010年至2014年间，发明型和实用新型专利数量平稳增长；2014年至2019年间，发明型和实用新型专利数量快速增长，特别是2019年较2018年的增长速度尤为明显。排名前三位的亚领域分别为眼科检查或色觉异常占31%、眼睑或眼表占19%及眼底病占15%。从申请人看，发明数量排名前十位的均为企业，其中8家企业为国际企业，2家为国内企业。其中，排名前3位的企业分别为美国的直观外科手术操作公司有346件发明型专利，美国的诺华股份有限公司有255件发明型专利，而日本的佳能株式会社则有237件发明型专利和2件实用新型专利；2家国内企业分别为深圳市精锋医疗科技有限公司有116件发明型专利和14件实用新型专利，成都博恩思医学机器人有限公司则有109件发明型专利和67件实用新型专利。从申请人地域分布来看，首先华东地区申请的数量最多为13 576件，大幅领先于其他地区；其次为华南地区有4321件；再次为华北地区有3697件；西北地区有953件。 结论需提升专利申请质量；关注眼科热点领域和技术空白点；加强专利保护意识，完善知识产权管理制度；西北地区有待加大投入、提高科研人员的积极性和创新性。     

Vitrectomy in traumatic cataracts and in the complications of surgery in congenital cataract in children

Vitrectomies were carried out in 35 children with traumatic cataracts and complications of surgery for cataracts, caused by injury to the posterior lenticular capsule and incorporation of its fragments to the vitreous. Complete removal of lenticular rudiments rapidly eliminated phacogenic iridocyclitis and improved visual acuity. Improvement of visual functions was attained in 66.6% cases; in 33.4% cases visual acuity did not change. Hemorrhages to the vitreous cavity occurred in 4 cases with pronounced iridocyclitis; therefore, a corneal approach is preferable for cases with pronounced iridocyclitis.     

阿托品在大龄弱视儿童治疗中的应用

弱视是影响儿童视觉发育最常见的眼病。弱视的患者不仅单眼或双眼视力明显低下,更重要的是有可能失去双眼平衡及立体视。三百多年来,遮盖法作为治疗弱视的经典疗法广泛应用于临床。但遮盖一眼后,一方面不利于双眼立体视的建立,可能形成遮盖性弱视;另一方面,年龄虽然是影响弱视治疗效果的重要因素,但患者治疗的依从性对疗效的影响也至关重要。基于上述原因,遮盖疗法对大龄弱视儿童的治愈率及治疗的疗程受到相应的制约。因此,阿托品疗法(尤其是光学药物压抑疗法)被一些患者,特别是大龄弱视儿童(7岁以上)广泛接受。因为它既能给患儿一个被迫依从的治疗过程又能压抑主眼,同时给双眼共同视物的机会,以利于双眼视功能的建立。并且这种治疗方法有效地解决了患者因为美容或其他原因不愿意接受遮盖的问题。下面我们就阿托品压抑疗法在大龄儿童(7岁以上)弱视治疗中的应用进行综述。     

Change in the course of blindness in childhood

In the course of the 20th century there have been major changes in the causes of blindness in childhood. This is illustrated by the example of the 1271 children born between 1885 and 1976 who attended the Bavarian State School for the Blind. The following developments became apparent: Until 1940 the most common cause of blindness, accounting for 25% of the cases, was corneal disease, almost exclusively of infectious origin. This cause has been reduced most, to 2%. There has also been a clear reduction in blindness due to anterior uveitis (mainly due to infection) and chorioretinitis. There were fewer such cases -5% and 3%, respectively. Since the 1960s there have been no further cases of blindness due to ocular injury in children, and no case of sympathetic ophthalmia has occurred since 1950. While the incidence of congenital cataract and buphthalmos has remained constant, they now only lead to blindness in a small proportion of those affected, thanks to improvements in therapy. The incidence of blindness caused by retinal detachment, usually associated with myopia, is also unchanged, though rare (2-3%). The same applies to bilateral retinoblastoma, while the frequency of optic nerve atrophy (20%) and tapetoretinal degeneration (16-19%) has remained both constant and high. There has been a drastic increase in ocular malformations and developmental anomalies. These include retrolental fibroplasia, which was responsible for blindness in 38% of the children born between 1967 and 1976. Overall, there has been a major reduction in the number of blind children in the population since the 1960s and especially since the 1970s.     

Trends in Patterns of Anterior Uveitis in a Tertiary Institution in Singapore

Purpose: To report the trends in etiology of patients with anterior uveitis (AU) in Singapore over 6 years.

Methods: A retrospective review of the clinical records of all new patients who presented with anterior uveitis to the uveitis subspecialty clinic from 2005 to 2010 at Tan Tock Seng Hospital, Singapore.

Results: There were 552 new cases of AU. This comprised 59.5% of a total of 928 new patients diagnosed with uveitis from 2005 to 2010. The mean age was 48.0?±?17.2 years. There was a male predominance (62.5%), with a male:female ratio of 1.7:1. The majority were of Chinese ethnicity (69%), followed by Malays (13.2%). Most cases were unilateral (79.5%) and idiopathic (50.4%). Common etiological causes included Fuchs heterochromic iridocyclitis (FHI) (5.6%), ankylosing spondylitis (AS)-related AU (5.1%), herpes simplex virus (HSV) (4.7%), and herpes zoster virus (HZV) (4.5%). There were increasing trends in AS-related AU from 3.2% in 2008 to 6.5% in 2010, and psoriasis-associated AU from 1.7% in 2005 to 4.0% in 2008. There were decreasing trends in the incidence of FHI from 10.6% in 2006 to 4.7% in 2009. No change in incidence of viral etiologies was noted, but cytomegalovirus-related immune-recovery uveitis (IRU) comprised 7.4%. IRU showed an increasing trend from 1.7% in 2005 to 11.9% in 2007, then decreased to 3.3% in 2010. Using the Pearson chi-square test, there was no statistically significant association between ethnicities (Chinese, Malay, Indian) comparing infectious and noninfectious cases (p?=?0.788), idiopathic and nonidiopathic cases (p?=?0.170), or between the various etiologies of uveitis (p?=?0.168).

Conclusions: AU was the predominant form of uveitis seen at our centers. Infectious etiologies (18.5%) are the most common among nonidiopathic cases, with herpes viruses (9.2%) being most prevalent. Despite increased use of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in the detection of microbial and viral DNA, there was no overall increase in detection of infectious causes for uveitis. The changes in CMV-related immune recovery uveitis from 2005 to 2010 could reflect a change in HIV management in Singapore.     

Status of speciality training in ophthalmology in India

PURPOSE: To systematically evaluate the quality of ophthalmology training in India. METHODS: Questionnaires were sent to existing medical schools and accredited training institutions. Institutions were followed up thrice to obtain responses. Data were analysed using Stata 8.0. RESULTS: Responses were received from 128 (89.5%) of the 143 institutions. Each year, 900 training slots were available across the country. Faculty: student ratios were better in accredited training institutions than in postgraduate medical schools. Fifty three (41.4%) of 128 institutions subscribed to more than 2 international journals. Fewer than 1 in 6 institutions conducted research projects. 11 (8.6%) institutions reported more than five publications in international peer-reviewed journals over three years. Only a third of the responding institutions had a wet lab. CONCLUSIONS: There is a need to improve the training facilities and optimally utilise the infrastructure available in postgraduate medical schools.     

Possibilities of the use of visual evoked potentials in the evaluation of visual acuity in congenital myopia in children]

Studies of visual evoked potentials (EP) to chess field reversion in 80 children (147 eyes) aged 5 to 16 with congenital myopia have demonstrated significant deviations from the reference values of the P100 component to all the stimuli. The clinical groups with various changes in the fundus oculi were found to differ by the P100 component amplitude when chess fields with cells 112 and 56 angular min in size were shown. The number of discrepancies between the clinical vision acuity and its assessment from the threshold EP grew from 19% when no changes in the fundus oculi were seen to 54 and 61% when myopic and non-myopic changes were detectable in the fundus oculi. These data evidence that EP amplitude to chess field reversion better reflects the status of the retino-cortical route than the central vision acuity.     

Changing challenges in the control of blindness in children

One cannot address issues of control of blindness in children without first considering the epidemiology, as this allows priorities to be determined and appropriate strategies to be delineated. Control does not occur within a vacuum, and so it is also important to understand the context in which programmes are to be implemented, particularly in relation to development and poverty--the distal risk factors that are powerful determinants of the incidence of disease in populations. Interventions need to be considered from the perspective of patients as well as providers if services are to be acceptable and appropriate.     

儿童外伤性白内障手术时机的选择

目的：探讨儿童外伤性白内障手术的最好时机。方法：对20例（20眼）儿童外伤性白内障施行后房人工晶状体植入术，手术在伤后2小时－7月实施。根据受伤情况，角膜伤口的情况，虹膜粘连情况，有无眼内异物及后囊的情况等。选择不同的术式。结果：术后均无严重的并发症。术后3月裸眼视力最差0．3，最好1．0，Ⅰ级视功能4例，Ⅱ级视功能5例，Ⅲ级视功能6例，无Ⅰ级视功能2例，不合作3例，结论：人工晶状体植入是治疗儿童外伤性白内障最安全，有效的方法。伤后早期手术可减少后期并发症的发生和手术操作的困难，使视力尽快恢复，更重要的是重要双眼立体视觉，从而减少弱视和废用性斜视的发生。     

Retinopathy of prematurity in a tertiary center in south of Brazil

AIM: To investigate the incidence of retinopathy of prematurity(ROP) in the southern Brazil, the rate of treatment and outcomes in all premature infants born at Hospital de Clinicas de Porto Alegre, Brazil, from October 2002 to October 2006. · METHODS: A prospective cohort study was conducted on 323 premature children born at Hospital de Clinicas de Porto Alegre, Brazil, from October 2002 to October 2006 with birth weight equal to or less than 1 500g or a gestational age at birth of 32 weeks or less. All of the newborns were examined by indirect binocular ophthalmoscopy with the 28 diopters lens after pupil's dilation and a lid speculum after the sixth week of life with examinations repeated depending on the disease classification. The main clinical outcome was the occurrence of ROP at any stage. · RESULTS: ROP occurred in 82 infants with an incidence rate of 25.7%. Threshold disease occurred in only 17 of the patients (5.3%), all of them had the disease affecting posterior Zone II needing laser treatment. None of the treated children had Zone I or aggressive posterior disease despite that three of the treated children needed a second laser session. One patient of the re-treated group needed scleral buckling with an equatorial silicon band after progression to stage 4 of ROP. · CONCLUSION: The incidence of retinopathy and the threshold disease in this study was similar to the international results reported. This study showed a high survival rate (70.1%), high incidence of retinopathy, and high laser treatment necessity among newborns under 28 weeks of gestational age or under 1 000g of birth weight. This study drove attention about the no identification of any Zone I posterior disease in this cohort of patients.     

Diagnosis of toxocariasis in uveitis in children

Seventeen children aged 2 to 13, suffering from uveitis of unknown etiology, were screened for chronic infections, toxocariasis included. Antibodies to Toxocara canis were detected in the blood of two children with negative results of tests for toxoplasmosis, tuberculosis, herpetic and cytomegaloviral infections. One of these two suffered from panuveitis, the other from granulomatous chorioretinitis. Both the clinical forms are characteristic of ocular toxocariasis.     

A comparison of the changing patterns of crystallin expression in vivo, in long-term primary cultures in vitro and in response to a carcinogen

Changes in the differentiation of day-old chick lens epithelium in long-term primary culture conditions were investigated by sodium dodecyl sulphate-polyacrylamide electrophoresis, using integrating densitometry to assess the relative levels of accumulated crystallin and non-crystallin polypeptides and fluorography to assess their relative levels of synthesis. The main changes during the culture period included a relative decline in the proportion of actin and other non-crystallins, an initial increase in 48K delta-crystallin expression followed by a decline and a shift in beta-crystallin expression from a relative preponderance of the 24K and 23K polypeptides to a relative preponderance of the 24K and 22K polypeptides. At all stages the level of the 19K alpha-crystallin was higher than that of the 20K alpha-crystallin polypeptide. In general, the changes in the pattern of expression of these polypeptides in culture were similar to those observed in vivo in the post-hatch chick, suggesting an intrinsic programme of crystallin expression. The changes in gene expression were also tested indirectly by brief exposure of the cells in vitro to a carcinogen, N-methyl-N'-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine (MNNG) which is known to produce, in some systems, effects related to the status of the cell at the time of treatment. The effects were found to depend on the stage of differentiation of the culture at the time of treatment. Treatment on day 1 of culture prevented later lentoid formation and severely reduced the expression of all crystallins with the exception of the 34K beta-crystallin polypeptide. Actin was the most abundant soluble cell component, and a proportion of the cells acquired a fibroblast-like morphology. Treatment with MNNG on day 7 led to a delay in lentoid formation and a differential reduction of the synthesis of crystallin polypeptides, whereas the treatment of already differentiated cultures on day 18 and to lesser extents on days 27, 45 and 55, respectively, led to an increase in crystallin synthesis relative to controls. These results suggest that this programme of crystallin gene expression becomes more resistant to change with increasing epithelial differentiation.     

Demographics of corneal transplantation in Canada in 2004

BACKGROUND: Penetrating keratoplasty (PKP) is the most frequently performed transplant surgery, and one of the most successful, yet no national study on the demographics of corneal transplantation in Canada has been published to date. The objectives of this study were to determine demographics of Canadian corneal transplant surgeons, donor tissue availability and waitlist length for each province, and limiting factors for the number of PKPs performed in Canada. METHODS: An anonymous voluntary survey of all Canadian corneal transplant surgeons was conducted between June and September 2004, with a concurrent voluntary survey of all eye banks in Canada. RESULTS: In 2004, there were 76 corneal transplant surgeons distributed as follows: British Columbia 17.1%, Alberta 11.8%, Saskatchewan 3.9%, Manitoba 7.9%, Ontario 36.8%, Quebec 17.1% and the Atlantic provinces 5.3%. The response rate of the Canadian corneal transplant surgeon survey was 69.7%. On average, each respondent performed 1 (SD 1) PKP/week, 40 (33) PKPs/year, and had a waitlist of 50 (63) patients. The mean wait time from date of referral to initial consultation was 10 (SD 7) weeks and from time of diagnosis to PKP was 51 (32) weeks. The most significant contributing factor to PKP waitlist selected by respondents in all provinces except Ontario was donor tissue shortage (64.7%); Ontario respondents (81.0%) believed that insufficient operating room time was the main factor. Ontario was the only province where all corneal transplant surgeons scheduled PKP electively and where surplus corneal tissue was regularly exported. INTERPRETATION: Recommendations include standardizing the criteria for acceptable donor tissue across all eye banks in Canada to increase efficiency of distribution, introducing and properly implementing mandatory referral and request legislation to increase donor rates, and increasing availability of operating room time for corneal transplant surgeons, especially in Ontario.     

Adalimumab in the therapy of uveitis in childhood

PURPOSE: Chronic anterior uveitis in children often takes a serious course. Despite various immunosuppressive drugs some children do not respond sufficiently and there is a high risk of them becoming seriously disabled. Anti-TNF alpha therapy has been shown by our group and others to be mostly ineffective (Etanercept) or partly effective (Infliximab) with the risk of anaphylactic reactions. Here we report on 18 young patients treated with Adalimumab (Humira), a complete humanised anti-TNF alpha antibody. METHODS: We retrospectively analysed 18 patients, who were treated with Adalimumab (20-40 mg, every 2 weeks, when ineffective every week); 17 had juvenile idiopathic arthritis, one was without detectable underlying disease. The age at onset of arthritis varied from 0.5-15 years and for uveitis from 2-19 years. Patients were included when the previous anti-inflammatory therapy had been ineffective. It consisted of systemic steroids (n = 18), Cyclosporin A (n = 18), Methotrexate (n = 18), Azathioprine (n = 12), Mycophenolate mofetil (n = 4), Cyclophosphamide (n = 2), Leflunomide (n = 3), Etanercept (n = 8) and Infliximab (n = 5). The grading for uveitis was: (a) effective: no relapse or more than two relapses less than before treatment, (b) mild: one relapse less than before treatment, (c) no response: no change in relapse rate and (d) worsening: more relapses under treatment than before. The grading for arthritis (depending on the clinical findings), using three out of six parameters of the ACR PED Criteria, was: effective, mild, no response, worsening. RESULTS: For arthritis (n = 16) the response to Adalimumab was effective in 10 of 16 patients, mild in three patients, three did not respond. For uveitis (n = 18) Adalimumab was effective in 16, mild in one child, and one patient did not show any effect. After a very good response initially a shorter application time had to be used to maintain the good anti-inflammatory effect in one child. Additional immunosuppressive treatment was used in seven of the effectively treated children. Due to elevation of liver enzymes in one patient, who also took MTX, Adalimumab had to be discontinued. No anaphylactic reactions or increased frequency of infections since start of Adalimumab treatment was reported. CONCLUSIONS: For our group of children with long lasting disease our results show that Adalimumab was effective or mildly effective against the arthritis in 81%, but in uveitis in 88%. While these results regarding arthritis are comparable with other TNF-alpha blocking drugs (Etanercept), Adalimumab seems to be much more effective against uveitis than Etanercept. Anaphylactic reactions, found in a previous study from our group after Infliximab treatment, were not seen with Adalimumab. The necessary dosage and the treatment period, which probably have to be defined individually for each patient, remain unclear.     

江苏宜兴地区贫困救助白内障手术状况分析

目的：探讨由宜兴市人民医院主导的本地区白内障复明工作的可行性及手术评价。 方法：（1）分别比较贫困救助（以下简称贫困）与非贫困救助（以下简称非贫困）白内障患者手术前视力盲、视力残疾情况及手术后脱盲、脱残情况（视力〈0.05为盲,〈0.3为残疾,术后视力≥0.05为脱盲,≥0.3为脱残）,比较两者存在的差异。（2）将本院贫困白内障的手术情况与“十二五冶期间“百万贫困白内障患者复明工程冶项目的具体要求相比较。 结果：贫困组72例,其中盲41例,视力残疾70例;非贫困组210例,其中盲眼111例,视力残疾200例,两组术前盲眼比例无差别（χ2=1.344,P 〈0.05）;视力残疾无差别（χ2=0.146, P 〈0.05）。脱盲率：贫困组92.7%,非贫困组88.3%,两组脱盲率无差别（χ2=0.236,P 〈0.05）。脱残率：贫困组78.6%%,非贫困组73.0%,两组脱残率无差别（χ2=0.846,P〈0.05）。 结论：本院百万贫困白内障患者复明工程开展顺利,完全有能力承担本市白内障复明工作,但仍存在一定不足,需持续改进。     

Bevacizumab眼科应用新进展

Bevacizumab是世界上首个批准上市的血管内皮因子抑制剂，用于治疗肿瘤性疾病，由于其强大的抗新生血管作用，在眼科新生血管性疾病治疗中有广泛的应用前景。其使用方法包括静脉注射和玻璃体注射，初步结果显示具有显著疗效，相比与同类药物有一定的优势。本文对其作用机理、应用范围、方法和副作用进行论述。     

Spatial organization of subfields in receptive fields of cells in cat striate cortex

Spatial organization of receptive fields (RF) of cells in cat striate cortex was investigated with moving and flashing light and dark bars and with grating-patterns of a varying number of cycles. It was shown that the maximum number of subfields in a simple cell is equal to eight or the number of periods in weighting function is equal to four. Quantitative comparison of the data with the results of seven other studies allows us to suggest that the number of periods in linear component of some complex cells is close to this value. The discrepancies between the results of different authors in estimation of the number of subfields are explained by the experimental data.     

泰州市早产儿视网膜病变筛查结果分析

目的了解泰州市早产儿视网膜病变（ROP）的患病情况并分析与ROP相关的高危因素。方法收集泰州市2008年3月至2011年3月286例（572只眼）早产儿和低体重儿ROP筛查资料进行回顾性分析。结果 286例（572只眼）早产儿和低体重儿中,共筛查出36例（72只眼）患有不同程度的ROP,ROP检出率约为12.6%,所有患儿均为双眼患病,其中包括ROP 1期12例（24只眼）,ROP 2期14例（28只眼）,ROP 3期4例（8只眼）,ROP4期2例（4只眼）,AP-ROP 1例（2只眼）,ROP 5期3例（6只眼）,提示早产、低出生体重、缺血和缺氧性脑病、胎盘早剥等影响胎儿发育的相对缺氧因素与ROP的发生密切相关。结论早产、低出生体重及相对缺氧因素是ROP发生的高危因素,早筛查、早发现、早治疗是预防ROP致盲的关键。     

A longitudinal study of trends in keratitis in Australia

PURPOSE: To analyze the changes in risk factors, corneal culture results, antibiotic resistance, treatment, and clinical outcomes of patients with keratitis presenting to a major public hospital in Australia over a 5-year period. METHODS: A retrospective audit of all patients who had a corneal scraping between October 1999 and September 2004 at the Princess Alexandra Hospital. Clinical information was gathered from medical records and smear and culture results from the local microbiology database. The trends over time in patient demographics, keratitis risk factors, corneal culture results, antibiotic resistance, treatment, and clinical outcomes were analyzed by using linear regression. By using a moving average, we analyzed differences in the rate of culture of each causative organism for each month of the year with linear regression from the month of highest presentation. The mean of maximum temperatures on the days of presentation between different groups of organisms was compared. RESULTS: The proportion of patients presenting with keratitis related to contact lens wear increased significantly (12%-29%; P = 0.04) and with keratitis related to ocular surgery decreased significantly (18%-8%; P = 0.009) through the study. Antibiotic resistance of cultured bacteria to cephalothin increased significantly (2%-12%; P = 0.02), whereas resistance to ciprofloxacin and gentamicin remained at a low level throughout the study. There was significant variation in the monthly recovery of Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P = 0.04) and fungi (P = 0.02), which were cultured more frequently in summer months, whereas Streptococcus pneumoniae (P = 0.04) was more common in winter months than in other times of the year. Treatment with fluoroquinolones increased significantly (14%-40%; P = 0.002) through the study, and the rate of good outcomes also increased significantly (42%-72%; P = 0.02). CONCLUSIONS: In this series, keratitis related to contact lens wear became more frequent, whereas keratitis related to prior ocular surgery became less frequent. Different organism groups showed significant seasonal variations in their presentation, and bacterial resistance to cephalothin increased significantly.     

Advances in the use of adhesives in ophthalmology

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: To summarize the known uses of available medical tissue adhesives in the management of diseases of the anterior segment, highlighting recent developments in the field. RECENT FINDINGS: Human fibrin glues may be used in place of cyanoacrylate tissue adhesives in the treatment of progressive corneal thinning and small perforations, potentially resulting in less corneal and conjunctival inflammatory reaction. Additional currently proposed uses of fibrin glues in ophthalmic surgery include minimizing sutures in recurrent pterygium surgery, forniceal reconstruction, amniotic membrane transplantation, and lamellar corneal grafting. SUMMARY: After reviewing the literature pertaining to the current use of tissue adhesives in ophthalmic surgery, the authors conclude that the main indication for cyanoacrylate tissue adhesives is for the treatment of progressive corneal thinning and small, uncomplicated corneal perforations. Human fibrin glues appear to be equally effective in such cases and have the advantage of biocompatibility, allowing application over a larger surface area and the use of a superficial covering layer such as amniotic membrane or conjunctiva for further reinforcement and promotion of rapid re-epithelialization. Other applications of human fibrin glues in ophthalmic surgery are evolving, but their widespread use is limited by concern over the theoretic risk of viral transmission and the complexity of their preparation and application in comparison with traditional sutures.