Downward trend seen in endophthalmitis after PK

A comprehensive literature review of the past 40 years indicates that the rate of endophthalmitis after penetrating keratoplasty has declined in the past decade.

Mehran Taban, MD, and colleagues at the University of California, Irvine, and the Wilmer Eye Institute identified and reviewed 66 studies of endophthalmitis after penetrating keratoplasty that were published between 1963 and 2003. Follow-up on the patients ranged from 1 month to 3 years.

A total of 90,549 PK procedures were included in the studies, with an overall 0.382% incidence of endophthalmitis after PK. Most of the studies on endophthalmitis and PK came from the United States (40), followed by Germany, India and the United Kingdom (three studies each), African countries, Australia, Denmark, Israel and Saudi Arabia, with two studies each, and Canada, Finland, France, Singapore, Sweden and Turkey with one study each.

Of note, the authors said, is that over time the rate has declined since the early 1990s. Rates of endophthalmitis after penetrating keratoplasty were 0.142% in the 1970s, 0.376% in the 1980s, 0.453% in the 1990s and 0.2% in the 2000-2003 time frame, the authors said.

“The rate of acute endophthalmitis following penetrating keratoplasty was higher than that following cataract surgery, representing an almost threefold increased risk associated with penetrating keratoplasty,” the authors reported in the May issue of Archives of Ophthalmology. The same group of researchers also recently published an analysis of the incidence of endophthalmitis after cataract surgery. For more on that study, click here.