One of my favorite patients of all time came to visit me in Las Vegas!
This patient was exposed to black mold in 2014/2015 and suffered a very hard-to-treat corneal ulcer in her left eye.
We cultured the ulcer and it came back negative for everything tested for. We tried antibiotics, antivirals, antifungals, steroids, oral medicines, you name it.
We were finally able to get help from a corneal specialist in Loma Linda, and later we found out the root cause of all of this was from a black mold exposure in the office that she worked in.
Despite a million treatment options, I was desperate at this point to try anything, and we ended up using an amniotic membrane on her left eye in conjunction with other drops and medications.
It was the ONLY thing that slowed down the progression of this corneal ulcer/growth. She had absolutely amazing results with the amniotic membrane.
In the photo, you can see this was her cornea after numerous treatment options. After the amniotic membrane, we had her on other therapies such as steroids to try and decrease the amount of scar tissue. Her vision was about 20/400 through this entire process.
Of course in these patients, there is usually a large amount of scar tissue left, which was apparent in the left eye. The next step was to fit her into a scleral contact lens.
The purpose of a scleral lens is not only to help her see better, but also protect her cornea from the outside environment.
Over the years I have seen this patient, her eye continues to improve more and more. By using her scleral lens, the cornea is constantly lubricated, which has resulted in less and less scar tissue every time I see her!
She has been wearing the scleral lens for about 4 years at this point. The scar tissue is MUCH improved and she could see 20/25 at this point through the scleral lens.
I saw her today and she can see 20/20-2 with the left eye through her scleral lens and her cornea looks amazing!
I love following the progression of patients through their eye journey - it is truly very rewarding to see the progress of some really challenging cases.
