Corneal Sequestrum and Corneoconjunctival Transposition in a One Year Old Himalayan Cat
A one year old, female spayed, Himalayan cat presented to Cornell University Hospital for Animals Ophthalmology Service for a large, brown-black lesion on the right cornea with associated blepharospasm and keratoconjunctivitis. The lesion was determined to be a feline corneal sequestrum. The patient underwent surgical treatment, as opposed to medical management, and a keratectomy and corneoconjunctival transposition graft procedure were performed. The patient recovered from anesthesia and surgery uneventfully, and at her two week post-operative recheck examination, the eye was healing as expected. The patient has an excellent long term prognosis for vision and comfort in the affected eye. Introduction: Feline corneal sequestra, lesions where the corneal stroma is affected by focal stromal collagen discolouration and necrosis that may or may not be associated with epithelial loss (1), have long affected feline patients, and in particular, brachycephalic breeds such as Persians and Himalayans (2). Though the etiology of these corneal lesions remains somewhat unclear, surgical treatment is typically curative and largely accomplished with either a corneoconjunctival transposition graft, or a conjunctival pedicle graft. In this case, a Himalayan cat presented with a large corneal sequestrum that was subsequently treated with a corneoconjunctival transposition graft.