This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
More than half of DALK corneal buttons affected by artifacts, technique problems
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Histopathological examination of deep anterior lamellar keratoplasty corneal buttons found that more than 60% were affected by artifacts or problems related to the DALK procedure.
A retrospective, observational clinical laboratory study examined 225 DALK corneal buttons. The study authors focused on cases affected by artifacts secondary to DALK and compared keratoconus cases that underwent DALK with cases that underwent penetrating keratoplasty.
The results showed that 139 buttons (61.8%) were affected by artifacts or problems related to DALK; 131 cases (58.2%) were affected by corneal emphysema associated with the big bubble technique, 12 cases (5.3%) were affected by epithelial edema associated with the hydrodelamination procedure, and two cases (0.9%) were lost specimens.
The study did not identify any conus in 10 (7.4%) of the DALK-keratoconus cases compared with two (1.6%) of the PK-keratoconus cases (P = .036).
“This study highlights the under-reported DALK-related histopathological characteristics and potential problems which occurred during histopathological examination of the DALK corneal buttons,” the study authors said.
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts