This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.

DLEK possible using grafts not suitable for PK, study shows

Add topic to email alerts

Receive an email when new articles are posted on

Please provide your email address to receive an email when new articles are posted on .

Subscribe

Added to email alerts

You've successfully added to your alerts. You will receive an email when new content is published.

Click Here to Manage Email Alerts

You've successfully added to your alerts. You will receive an email when new content is published.

Click Here to Manage Email Alerts

Back to Healio

We were unable to process your request. Please try again later. If you continue to have this issue please contact customerservice@slackinc.com.

Back to Healio

Corneal donor tissue considered unsuitable for full-thickness penetrating keratoplasty could still be suitable for use in deep lamellar endothelial keratoplasty, according to a study by researchers in Oregon. The finding could allow more donor tissue to be utilized, the study authors noted.

Rebecca L. Armour, MD, and colleagues at Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, compared the 6-month outcomes of patients treated with deep lamellar endothelial keratoplasty (DLEK) involving donor tissue considered either suitable or unsuitable for PK.

Surgeons performed small-incision DLEK using 39 donor corneas unsuitable for PK. Of these, 35 donors had anterior scars or opacities, three had pterygia within the 8-mm zone and one had prior LASIK. Manual stromal dissection was used for all donor graft preparation, according to the study.

The control group included the first 55 consecutive small-incision DLEK patients who received donor corneas that were considered suitable for PK.

Dr. Armour and colleagues found that 6 months after surgery in patients who received corneas unsuitable for PK, vision and corneal topography measurements improved significantly and there was no significant change in astigmatism.

At 6 months follow-up, patients treated with grafts not suitable for PK had a significantly lower mean visual acuity, which averaged 20/56 compared with an average visual acuity of 20/43 for control patients.

However, "If eyes with known cystoid macular edema and vitrectomy are removed from each group, there is no significant difference in vision at 6 months between the study group and the control group, with the average [best corrected visual acuity] of those receiving donor corneas unsuitable for PK equal to 20/48 and the average vision for those receiving PK-acceptable donor tissue equal to 20/43," the authors said in the study.

Both groups had similar endothelial cell counts, refractive astigmatism and corneal topographies at 6 months, they noted.

The study is published in the June issue of Cornea.