Abstract
Purpose :
To describe the indications and outcomes associated to keratoplasty in children.
Methods :
This is a retrospective descriptive study performed at the Instituto de Oftalmologia Conde de Valenciana. The medical records of all patients under 18 years of age that underwent keratoplasty from 2009 to 2019 were reviewed. The data reviewed was: patients demographics, indication for keratoplasty, visual acuity at presentation and at last visit, surgeries previous, during or after keratoplasty, glaucoma incidence and time to graft failure
Results :
A total of 46 patients (53 eyes) under the age of 18 were included in this review. The mean age was 13.75 ± 3.89 years. The most common indication was keratoconus in 26 eyes (49%).The most common procedure was penetrating keratoplasty in 47 eyes (89%). Mean logMAR vision acuity at presentation was 2.05 ± 0.99 and at last visit 0.82 ±1.33 (p<0.05). The mean follow up time was 56.98 ± 42.83 months while the mean survival time was 130.34 months. The survival rate was 86.79% per year. The survival time of the eyes with previous surgery and the eyes that had concomitant surgery was different compared to the eyes without previous surgeries (p=0.02). The survival time of the 15 eyes that had surgery after the keratoplasty was not different (p=0.601). A total of 17 eyes (32.1%) had ocular hypertension of which 8 (15.1%) had confirmed diagnosis of glaucoma. Mean survival time of patients without glaucoma was 116.
Conclusions :
The most common indication for keratoplasty was keratoconus and the survival rate of the grafts over a mean follow up time of 56.98 ± 42.83 months was 86.79% per year. This survival rate was worse in patients who had had previous surgeries or concomitant surgeries at time of keratoplasty. The most common complication was ocular hypertension. Interestingly, even though many studies have reported that glaucoma affects the survival rate in adults and children, in this study, there was no difference in survival time between eyes that had glaucoma and the ones without glaucoma.
This is a 2021 ARVO Annual Meeting abstract.