Comparing the frequency of endothelial graft rejection, failure, re-bubbling and visual acuity gain in endothelial keratoplasty (DSAEK) patients between precut and surgeon-cut endothelial grafts: a two-year follow-up study

Session Details

Session Title: Presented Poster Session: Cornea - Surgical

Session Date/Time: Saturday 05/09/2015 | 15:00-16:30

Paper Time: 15:40

Venue: Poster Village: Pod 4

First Author: : K.Holmgaard DENMARK

Co Author(s): :    A. Hajjar Sese   N. Jacosen           

Abstract Details

Purpose:

To compare the frequency of graft rejection, re-bubbling, failure, and visual gain after Descemet's stripping automated endothelial keratoplasty (DSAEK) in patients with precut (n=26) and surgeon-cut (n=28) endothelial grafts.

Setting:

The eye clinic at Copenhagen University Hospital, Rigshospitalet, Glostrup, Denmark.

Methods:

Patients who had a DSAEK at the department between July 1st 2012 and January 1st 2013 were evaluated (n=66), and individuals suffering form severe AMD, glaucoma, retinal detachment, and congenital eye diseases were excluded (n=12). Of the 54 patients enrolled in this retrospective two-year follow-up study, 26 had precut, and 28 had surgeon-cut grafts. Re-bubbling, graft rejection, and graft failures during the two years of follow-up were recorded, and visual acuity gain one year after surgery was compared between the groups.

Results:

In the 26 patients with precut DSAEK grafts re-bubbling, rejection and failure occurred in 4/26, 3/26, and 4/26, respectively, versus 3/28, 2/28, and 2/28 in the surgeon-cut ones. There was no statistically significant difference between the two methods of preparing the graft. P=0.7, p=0.66 and p=0.41, using Fisher's exact test to compare the frequency of re-bubbling, rejection, and failure between the two groups. One year after surgery the precut patients had a gain in visual acuity of 28.02 ± 5.34 % (mean ± SEM) versus 32.54 ± 3.95 % in the surgeon-cut population p=0.49, unpaired t-test.

Conclusions:

Comparing patients with precut and surgeon-cut DSAEK grafts there was no significant difference in the frequency of re-bubbling, rejection, and failure of the grafts after two years of follow-up. No significant difference in the gain in visual acuity between DSAEK patients with precut and surgeon-cut DSAEK grafts was observed after one year.

Financial Interest:

NONE