Abstract
Abstract: :
Purpose: To compare the advantages and inconvenients of two different suturing techniques (single runing suture and interrupted suture)after penetrating keratoplasty, and to determine the final post operatory astigmatism in each one Methods: Detailed eye examinations were conducted from june 2001 to june 2003. A totality of 78 eyes have been included in this study, and all patients completed a clinical evaluation before and after the intervention at 1, 3, 6, 9 and 12 months (clinical observation and corneotopography). All the operations were performed by the same surgeon. The different cases were randomly allocated in two groups: group 1, with a single running suture with 10.0 nylon: 48 eyes (61.5%), and group 2 , with an interrupted suture (16 bites) with 10.0 nylon: 30 eyes (38.5%). The mean age of the parients was 50.2 years ( from 16 to 87 years), and sex ratio was 1.16 (42 male i.e 53.8%, and 36 female i.e 46.2%).The main clinical indications for penetrating keratoplasty wer ordoned such as: pseudophakic eyes opacification (37 eyes i.e 47.7%), keratoconus (16 eyes i.e 20.5%), post infections (8 eyes i.e 10.3%), post traumatic (6 eyes i.e 7.7%), cornea guttata (5 eyes i.e 6.4%) and other indications (6 eyes i.e 7.7%). Results: At the end of the study,overall mean refractive astigmatism after corneal graft was 4.00+/– 1.75D.Mean refractive astigmatism in group 1 with single running suture was 3.85+/–1.75 D (n=95%), and 62.5% of the eyes obtained an astigmatism under 4.00D.Mean refractive astigmatism in grup 2 with an interrupted suture was 4.40 +/–1.75 D (n= 95%), and 60%of the eyes obtained an astigmatism under 4.00D. We find a larger difference of spreading of astigmatism results in group 1, i.e that the average of post keratectomy results in this groupspread from 0.75 to 6.75D, mean that in group 2 , 100% of the patients finally obtained an astigmatism between 2.00 and 6.00 D. Conclusions: We find no statiscal differences between the overall mean refractive astigmatism after penetrating keratoplasty, with a single running suture and with an interrupted suture at 6 months and for the final results.
Keywords: cornea: clinical science • refractive surgery: corneal topography • keratoconus