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Updated: Aug 19, 2026
Corneal Donor Tissue Preparation for Descemet's Membrane Endothelial Keratoplasty
Published on: September 17, 2014
Penetrating keratoplasty for macular corneal dystrophy
Samar A Al-Swailem1, Ali A Al-Rajhi, Michael D Wagoner
1Anterior Segment Division, Department of Ophthalmology, King Khaled Eye Specialist Hospital, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. angelofsa@yahoo.com
Purpose:
To determine the prognosis of penetrating keratoplasty (PK) for macular corneal dystrophy (MCD).
Design:
Single-center, retrospective, interventional, noncomparative case series.
Participants:
One hundred forty-one patients (229 eyes) with MCD.
Intervention:
Retrospective review of the medical record of every patient who underwent primary PK for histopathologically confirmed MCD at the King Khaled Eye Specialist Hospital between January 1, 1983 and December 31, 2002 and for whom at least 12 months of follow-up is available.
Main Outcome Measures:
Visual acuity (VA), graft survival, and postoperative complications.
Results:
After a mean follow-up period of 5.9+/-3.8 years (range, 1-17), the mean best-corrected VA was 20/50. At the most recent visit, 206 (90.0%) grafts were clear, and 23 (10.0%) had failed. Probabilities of graft survival were 98.1% at 1 year, 89.8% at 5 years, 82.1% at 10 years, and 74.1% at 15 years. There was a statistically significant increased likelihood of graft failure if the patient was older than 40 years at the time of surgery (P<0.00003). The differences in graft failure between patients older than 40 and those younger were not attributable to statistically significant differences in duration of follow-up, donor age, or donor endothelial cell counts. Corneal endothelial rejection episodes occurred in 47 (20.0%) grafts, but resulted in irreversible graft failure in only 8 (3.5%) eyes. Eighteen (27.3%) of 66 eyes with a recipient size of > or =7.5 mm developed a graft rejection episode, compared with 27 (16.6%) of 163 eyes with a recipient size of <7.5 mm (P = 0.04). Microbial keratitis occurred in 14 (6.1%) grafts and was more likely to occur in patients over 40 (14.0% vs. 3.0%, P = 0.01). Clinically significant recurrence was observed in 12 (5.2%) grafts, after a mean interval of 84+/-48.2 months, and was directly related to patient age (P = 0.04) and inversely related to donor graft size (P = 0.04).
Conclusions:
Good visual results and excellent graft survival can be achieved after PK for MCD. The risk of graft failure is higher in patients older than 40 years.
