Evaluation Of The Effects Of Plasma-Assisted Noninvasive Surgery On The Concentration Of Candidate Cytokines In Tear And Serum Samples Of Conjunctivochalasis Patients

The present study aimed to determine whether treating symptomatic Conjunctivochalasis (CCh) patients with Atmospheric Low-Temperature Plasma (ALTP) can stimulate inflammatory responses or not; if yes, are they in a stable state and how long do they take back to the normal range?

This research set as a case series in Vision health research center, Tehran, Iran.

In this study, 20 patients with definite CCh—with a grade of 3 and 4—were recruited. ALTP was generated and used to undertake the surgery; the slit-lamp examinations were used to follow up the clinical outcomes after surgery. Tear and serum samples were isolated from each patient at 1 week, 1 month, and 3 months after treatment, and the concentration of candidate pro-inflammatory (i.e. IL-2, IL-6, IL-17A, IFN-γ, and TNF-α) and anti-inflammatory cytokines (IL-4 and IL-10) was measured using flow cytometry.

In all patients, grades 3 and 4 of CCh were substantially improved to grades 1 and 2, respectively; clinically, after one month, no complications were reported in the eyes that were subjected to ALTP-based surgical procedure. Besides, the analyses revealed that the ALTP-based treatment could improve the ‘Ocular Surface Disease Index’ score. Interestingly, regarding the concentration of the candidate cytokines in the tear and serum samples, no differences were observed at pre- and post-surgery follow-ups.

In sum, we reintroduced using the Plasma-Assisted Noninvasive Surgery method as a novel approach to treat CCh because of its accurate handy nature and also being office base and inexpensive, with no stimulated inflammatory responses.