AIM: To evaluate the postoperative effect of corneal limbal stem cell transplantation in the treatment of recurrent pterygium.

METHODS: All 124 eyes of 112 patients affected by recurrent pterygium and referred to our ophthalmologic department were considered. Each patient underwent autograft transplantation of corneal limbal stem cells.

RESULTS: Totally 115 eyes of 103 patients were cured, the rate of operation success was 92.7%, while 9 eyes of 8 patients were with recurrence, the recurrent rate was 7.3%.

CONCLUSION: There are good curative effect and low recurrence rate of corneal limbal stem cell transplantation in the treatment of recurrent pterygium.