Posters

Corneal transplantation activity in Catalonia, Spain, from 2011 to 2017: evolution of indications and surgical techniques

Poster Details

First Author: N.Sabater SPAIN

Co Author(s):    M. Figueras-Roca   L. Padró   J. Tort   E. Trias   R. Casaroli-Marano        

Abstract Details

Purpose:

To report the evolving indications for keratoplasty and changes in surgical techniques in Catalonia, Spain, over a 7-year period, from 2011 to 2017. Especially after pre-cut tissue for Descemet Stripping Automated Endothelial Keratoplasty (DSAEK) started in 2013 and that for Descemet Membrane Endothelial Keratoplasty (DMEK) in 2017, both supplied by the Barcelona Tissue Bank (BST)

Setting:

Catalan transplant organization (Organització Catalana de Trasplantaments – OCATT) and Barcelona Tissue Bank (Banc de Sang i Teixits - BST) Barcelona, Spain

Methods:

Retrospective database review of all tissue records for corneal transplant within the OCATT (Spain), from January 2011 to December 2017. Surgeons were required to sent a transplant confirmation form to the OCATT after each keratoplasty. Performed indications and keratoplasty techniques were described and analysed. Absolute frequencies and percentages were used to describe the dataset, which underwent Chi-squared tests for trend analysis; p-values < 0.05 were considered statistically significant

Results:

A total of 8001 keratoplasties were performed during the study period. Information about indications and techniques was available in 6804 cases (85%). Surgeons response rate ranged from 74% in 2017 to 96% in 2016. Main indications were: bullous keratoplasty (20.2%), Fuchs dystrophy (17.3%), regraft (13.6%) and keratoconus (11.6%). Surgical techniques were: penetrating keratoplasty (66.2%), DSAEK (16.5%), deep anterior lamellar keratoplasty (10.9%) and DMEK (6.4%). There was a significant increase in the proportion of posterior keratoplasties compared to penetrating ones for bullous keratopathy and Fuchs dystrophy (p<0.0001). However, DSAEK was more indicated, as absolute cases, than DMEK for both pathologies.

Conclusions:

Bullous keratoplasty has become the main global indication for keratoplasty. There has been definitely a surgical technique shift for endothelial pathologies, with a significant trend towards posterior lamellar keratoplasties (mainly DSAEK) as the leading technique for those pathologies. However, penetrating keratoplasty is still the main keratoplasty technique over the 7-year period studied and even in the last years

Financial Disclosure:

None