Purpose: Report a new technique for improvement of pterygium surgery: donor graft harvesting with air.
Case reports: We describe a technique that was used with 138 patients who underwent surgery that included a conjunctival autograft and fibrin glue with air injection to dissect the Tenon capsule from the conjunctiva.
Results: No complications occurred with this technique and all patients achieved good results.
Discussion: The surgical time with this new technique was similar to that reported in the literature. In addition, the graft thickness was close to that reported with femtosecond laser dissection and it was thinner than that reported with aesthetic/saline dissection (unable to determine statistical significance).
Conclusions and importance: With the injection of an air bubble, we could easily dissect the conjunctiva from the Tenon capsule and quickly acquire thin grafts without any additional costs or complications.
Keywords: cornea; fibrin tissue adhesive; pterygium.