Abstract:
Background Corneal blindness is a common seen reversible blindness which can be managed with transplantation of a healthy donor cornea. Corneal transplantation is an organ transplantation with the highest success rate, and it can be classified as penetrating keratoplasty, deep lamellar keratoplasty, lamellar keratoplasty, endothelia keratoplasty according to different operation procedures. With the development of surgical techniques, instruments and microscopes, component keratoplasty is applied in clinical practice.
Objective To analyze the changes in causes and surgical techniques of corneal transplantation.
Methods The demographic data, causes and operation modes of 667 patients who underwent keratoplasty in department of ophthalmology in our hospital from January 1, 2015 to December 31, 2019 were analyzed retrospectively.
Results Totally 722 keratoplasties were performed on 667 patients. Of the 667 cases, 451 cases (67.6%) were male (492 eyes) and 216 cases (32.4%) were female (230 eyes). The average age of patients at time of surgery was (43.8±20.1) years, ranging from 4 months to 92 years, and 453 cases (67.9%) aged from 18 to 59 years. Patients came from all over the country, including 265 cases in provinces and cities around Beijing, accounting for 39.7% of the whole sample. The leading indications for corneal transplantation were keratitis in 167 eyes (23.1%), including 79 eyes (47.4%) were associated with virus; followed by reoperation in 111 eyes (15.3%), corneal scar in 108 eyes (15.0%), injury in 98 eyes (13.6%), keratoconus in 83 eyes (11.5%), bullae keratopathy in 79 eyes (10.9%), corneal dystrophy and degeneration in 51 eyes (7.1%), corneal dermoid and others in 25 eyes (3.4%). Of all the corneal transplant surgery, 227 (31.4%) eyes underwent penetrating keratoplasty (PKP), 190 (26.3%) eyes were lamellar keratoplasty (LKP) ,182 (25.2%) eyes were deep lamellar keratoplasty (DLKP), and 73 (10.1%) eyes were endothelia keratoplasty (EKP). The number of PKP was decreasing, while LKP and EKP increased.
Conclusion Infection keratitis is the first indication for keratoplasty, PKP is always the leading surgery mode, DLKP is tend to stable. LKP demonstrates an increasing trend and EKP has been applied in clinical practice.