Abstract

Background: The study aimed to report the outcomes of patients treated with cenegermin 0.002% for neurotrophic keratopathy (NK) following penetrating keratoplasty (PK). Materials and methods: This retrospective case series included patients evaluated at a tertiary care hospital who completed an 8-week course of cenegermin for NK within 12 months following PK. The primary outcome measure was NK stage, while secondary outcomes included complete epithelial healing, epithelial defect size, and best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) at baseline and four time points during and following treatment. We also evaluated disease progression. Results: Fourteen eyes of 14 patients were included and demonstrated significant improvement in NK stage at 4 weeks (1.1 ± 0.7; P = 0.006) and 8 weeks after treatment initiation (0.9 ± 0.7; P = 0.002) and 1 month (0.6 ± 0.5; P < 0.001) and 6 months after treatment completion (0.8 ± 0.9; P = 0.002) compared to baseline (1.6 ± 0.5). Complete epithelial healing was noted 1 month (42.9%; P = 0.016) and 6 months after treatment completion (38.5%; P = 0.016). Epithelial defect size improved to <5 mm2 at all points (P < 0.05) during and after treatment compared to baseline (37.24 mm2). Improvement in BCVA was not significant at any time point. Two (14.3%) patients experienced disease progression up to 6 months of follow-up. Conclusions: Following an 8-week course of cenegermin, patients with a history of PK demonstrated improvement in NK stage, epithelial healing, and reduced epithelial defect size lasting 6 months after treatment completion. Patients with prior PK and NK may be considered candidates for cenegermin treatment.

Keywords

Publication details

DOI
10.4103/ojo.ojo_311_24
Journal
Oman Journal of Ophthalmology, 18(2), 198-204
Publisher
Medknow Publications
Open access
Gold open access

Cite this article

APA 7

Zaloga, A. R., Khalili, A., Ayres, B. D., Finklea, B. D., Meghpara, B. B., Rapuano, C. J., & Syed, Z. A. (2025). Utility of cenegermin for the management of neurotrophic keratopathy after penetrating keratoplasty. Oman Journal of Ophthalmology, 18(2), 198-204. https://doi.org/10.4103/ojo.ojo_311_24

MLA 9

Zaloga, Alexandra R, et al. "Utility of cenegermin for the management of neurotrophic keratopathy after penetrating keratoplasty." Oman Journal of Ophthalmology, vol. 18, no. 2, 2025, pp. 198-204. https://doi.org/10.4103/ojo.ojo_311_24.

Chicago (author–date)

Zaloga, Alexandra R, Ashley Khalili, Brandon D Ayres, Brenton D Finklea, Beeran B Meghpara, Christopher J Rapuano, and Zeba A Syed. 2025. "Utility of cenegermin for the management of neurotrophic keratopathy after penetrating keratoplasty." Oman Journal of Ophthalmology 18 (2): 198-204. https://doi.org/10.4103/ojo.ojo_311_24.

Harvard

Zaloga, A. R., Khalili, A., Ayres, B. D., Finklea, B. D., Meghpara, B. B., Rapuano, C. J. and Syed, Z. A. (2025) 'Utility of cenegermin for the management of neurotrophic keratopathy after penetrating keratoplasty', Oman Journal of Ophthalmology, 18(2), pp. 198-204. doi:10.4103/ojo.ojo_311_24.

Vancouver

Zaloga AR, Khalili A, Ayres BD, Finklea BD, Meghpara BB, Rapuano CJ, et al. Utility of cenegermin for the management of neurotrophic keratopathy after penetrating keratoplasty. Oman Journal of Ophthalmology. 2025;18(2):198-204. doi:10.4103/ojo.ojo_311_24

IEEE

A. R. Zaloga, A. Khalili, B. D. Ayres, B. D. Finklea, B. B. Meghpara, C. J. Rapuano, and Z. A. Syed, "Utility of cenegermin for the management of neurotrophic keratopathy after penetrating keratoplasty," Oman Journal of Ophthalmology, vol. 18, no. 2, pp. 198-204, 2025, doi: 10.4103/ojo.ojo_311_24.