[Syngeneic transplantation of nasal mucosa and azathioprine medication for therapy of cicatricial ocular mucous membrane pemphigoid. Study of 9 patients with 11 eyes].

Nine patients (11 eyes) with ocular cicatricial pemphigoid were treated with systemic azathioprine and a syngeneic nasal mucosa transplant from the inferior turbinate. Follow-up was 8-26 months (average 15 months). Grafting was successful in all cases. Treatment ameliorated the symptoms of pain in all patients and double vision in one. In 2 eyes in which simultaneous pannus resection had been performed, neither pannus nor corneal vascularization recurred. Late complications were recurrences with symblephara in two cases when azathioprine was stopped; in one patient with a serpiginous ulcer tectonic penetrating keratoplasty à chaud had to be performed; and in another a trophic ulcer was healed with a therapeutic contact lens.