Back to Journals » Clinical Ophthalmology » Volume 12
A novel scale for describing corneal staining
Authors Woods J, Varikooty J, Fonn D, Jones LW
Received 24 June 2018
Accepted for publication 11 September 2018
Published 19 November 2018 Volume 2018:12 Pages 2369—2375
DOI https://doi.org/10.2147/OPTH.S178113
Checked for plagiarism Yes
Review by Single-blind
Peer reviewers approved by Dr Cristina Weinberg
Peer reviewer comments 2
Editor who approved publication: Dr Scott Fraser

Jill Woods, Jalaiah Varikooty, Desmond Fonn, Lyndon W Jones
Centre for Ocular Research & Education, School of Optometry & Vision Science, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada
Abstract: The assessment of corneal staining is a commonly conducted procedure in both clinical practice and as part of various research studies. Different grading scales are employed by many clinicians and researchers to undertake this procedure for corneal staining comparisons between eyes, products and over time. This paper describes the development and use of a grading scale for corneal staining undertaken at an academic research site. The scale involves assessment of three factors across five corneal zones: type, area and depth. Staining type and area are graded on a 0–100 scale, and depth is graded on a 0–4 scale. These factors can be combined to create a three- or two-factor staining grade, or the factors may be reported individually. An additional benefit of this scale is that the staining scores may be reported by zone as “zone staining scores” or the scores of zones may be combined to provide an overall corneal “global staining score”.
Keywords: corneal staining, fluorescein staining, grading scale
This work is published and licensed by Dove Medical Press Limited. The full terms of this license are available at https://www.dovepress.com/terms.php and incorporate the Creative Commons Attribution - Non Commercial (unported, v3.0) License.
By accessing the work you hereby accept the Terms. Non-commercial uses of the work are permitted without any further permission from Dove Medical Press Limited, provided the work is properly attributed. For permission for commercial use of this work, please see paragraphs 4.2 and 5 of our Terms.