Articles about Eye Health and Disease 2003
 

Success Rate of Corneal Transplant Grafts

(From Marc Muraine, et al., Graefe’s Archive for Clinical and Experimental Ophthalmology, June 2003.)

Most corneal grafts after keratoconus or herpetic keratitis survive even after 10 to 17 years, a long-term study found. Outcomes for penetrating keratoplasty (corneal transplant) after pseudophakic (corneal transplant following cataract extraction with lens implant) or traumatic corneal injury tended to worsen with time, the study found.

Marc Muraine and others at the Hospital Charles Nicolle in Rouen, France, reviewed the records of 97 eyes that had undergone 103 grafts with a mean follow-up of 12.8 years.

Of the original 89 patients, 18 had died during the follow-up period. At the last follow-up visit before the patients’ deaths, 10 of the 21 grafts in those patients remained clear.

Graft survival rate after 1 year was 79%, after 2 years, 73%; after 5 years, 59% and after 10 years, 50%. At the end of follow-up, graft survival rate was 47%.

For those who required a graft because of keratoconus, the survival rate was 94.7%. For herpes keratitis, the survival rate was 57.1%. For pseudophakic keratopathy (bullous keratopathy), survival was 33.3%. For post-traumatic keratopathy, survival was 28.5%; and for re-grafts, survival was the lowest at 11.1%.

Of the patients grafted for aphakic (no lens implant) or pseudophakic keratopathy, 40% died during the course of the follow-up period. At the time of death, 45% of these patients had clear grafts. Endothelial decomposition (failure of the graft to remain clear due to failure of the corneal endothelium) and immune graft rejection were the main causes of failure.

Return to the Eye News Index of Articles Page