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Long-term comparison of full-bed deep anterior lamellar keratoplasty and penetrating keratoplasty in treating keratoconus

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Abstract

Objective

To compare postoperative outcomes of full-bed deep anterior lamellar keratoplasty (DALK) with penetrating keratoplasty (PK) in treating keratoconus.

Methods

Seventy-five eyes of 64 patients who received full-bed DALK and 52 eyes of 51 patients who received PK between June 2000 and August 2010 were included in this retrospective study. Full-bed DALK was performed using Yao’s hooking-detaching technique. PK was performed using a standard technique. Intraoperative and postoperative complications, visual acuity, rejection, graft survival, endothelial cell density, corneal sensation recovery, and re-innervation were compared between the two groups.

Results

A best correct visual acuity of 0.5 or better was achieved in 90.7% of eyes after full-bed DALK and in 92.3% of eyes after PK (P=0.75). By the fifth postoperative year, graft endothelial cell loss reached 34.6% in the PK group vs. 13.9% in the full-bed DALK group (P<0.001). There were no statistical differences in corneal sensitivity recovery or corneal re-innervation between the groups (P>0.05). Intraoperative microperforation occurred in seven out of 75 (9.3%) eyes with a temporally postoperative double anterior chamber in two eyes in the full-bed DALK group. Postoperative complications in the PK vs. the full-bed DALK groups respectively were: rejection (7.7% vs. 0%, P=0.015), high intraocular pressure (IOP) (46.2% vs. 1.3%, P<0.001), secondary glaucoma (9.6% vs. 0%, P=0.006), complicated cataract (19.2% vs. 0%, P<0.001), and wound dehiscence (9.6% vs. 0%, P=0.006).

Conclusions

Both full-bed DALK and PK can offer long-term satisfactory visual outcomes for keratoconus. Graft rejection, secondary glaucoma, complicated cataracts, and constant endothelial cell loss were observed in eyes only after PK.

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Correspondence to Yu-feng Yao.

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The two authors contributed equally to this work

Project (No. 2011C13029-2) supported by the Major Program for Science and Technology Research of Zhejiang Province, China

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Zhang, Ym., Wu, Sq. & Yao, Yf. Long-term comparison of full-bed deep anterior lamellar keratoplasty and penetrating keratoplasty in treating keratoconus. J. Zhejiang Univ. Sci. B 14, 438–450 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1631/jzus.B1200272

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1631/jzus.B1200272

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