Abstract
Purpose:
To analyze the graft survival and clinical outcomes of penetrating keratoplasty by comparing domestic donor cornea with imported donor cornea in the change of endothelial cell profiles and the rate of complications in Korea.
Methods:
Medical records of 236 eyes of 211 patients who were available for at least 1 year after penetrating keratoplasty (PKP) between November 2004 and August 2011 at our hospital were retrospectively reviewed. Patients were divided 2 groups according to types of donor cornea(domestic;108 eyes, imported from Sightlife, Seattle; 128 eyes) and further subdivided by the combination of the cataract surgery. Characteristics of the donor corneas (donor age, time taken from death to preservation and death to transplant) were compared between in domestic and imported cornea. Post-operative best corrected visual acuity (BCVA), combined surgeries, complication rate, change of endothelial cell profiles and survival analysis of the grafts were evaluated.
Results:
Among patients, 108 eyes had PKP by domestic cornea and 128 eyes had by imported cornea. Mean time taken from the donor to corneal preservation was 8.9 and 8.0 hours in domestic and imported group, without statistical difference. Imported group (119.6 hours) took significantly longer time from death of donor to transplant than domestic group (52.3 hours). Mean endothelial cell density was temporarily higher in imported group, and then it was not different from each other over time until 5 years. In addition, there was no difference in complication rates and graft survival time between those groups, regardless of the combination of cataract surgery.
Conclusions:
Although long-term journey was taken from the United states to the Korea in imported cornea, imported cornea is likely to bring comparable clinical outcomes to domestic cornea.
Keywords: 462 clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: outcomes/complications