[The factors necessary to achieve successful penetrating keratoplasty]

A statistical study was conducted of 31 penetrating keratoplasties performances over the past 6 years from January 1980 to December 1985, and the factors necessary to achieve successful penetrating keratoplasty are discussed on the basis of the results of the study. The patients were followed up for more than one year after operation. The graft transparency, visual acuity and incidence of corneal rejection were evaluated at one year after operation and the combined surgery with penetrating keratoplasty was also evaluated. The results obtained were as follows: 1) The distinctive feature of the cases with visual acuity of more than 1.0 were that the recipients were younger than 40 years of age and the donors were also less than 50 years at the time of the operation. 2) The patients with vascularized cornea showed a higher incidence of rejection and a lower successful ratio rate than did the avascular corneal patients. The above results indicate that the factors necessary to achieve a successful penetrating keratoplasty are young recipients, young donors and no vascularization of recipient cornea.