A long-term clinical outcome of Hoffmann pocket four-point scleral fixated intraocular lens implantation combined with penetrating keratoplasty – A single corneal surgeon’s report

Purpose: To analyze retrospectively the outcomes of Hoffmann pocket scleral fixated intraocular lens implantation combined with penetrating keratoplasty at a tertiary institute by a single corneal surgeon. Methods: Forty?two eyes of 42 patients, aged between 11 and 84 years, had a mean follow?up of 2 ± 2.216 years. Overall, five (11.9%) had congenital and 37 had acquired pathology, 15 were pseudophakic, 23 were aphakic, and four were phakic. The commonest indication was trauma in 19 (45.2%), and 21 had previous multiple surgeries including five retinal procedures. Results: The grafts were clear in 20 (47.6%), they failed in 20, three had acute rejection, three were ectatic, two had infection, one had persistent edema, and one had endophthalmitis. The mean log of minimum angle of resolution (logMAR) best corrected visual acuity was 1.902 pre?op, 1.802 at the final follow?up, and 0.52 after excluding preexisting retinal pathologies. At the last follow?up, the vision improved in 18 (42.9%), maintained in 6, and worsened in 18, and three needed more than ?5.00 D and seven needed more than ?3.00 D cylinder correction. Five had glaucoma preoperatively, 10 developed the condition postoperatively, six needed cyclodestructive procedure, and three had valve surgery. Conclusion: Advantages of this surgery are avoidance of additional sections to insert the lens, direct positioning of the lens in the posterior chamber, rotational stability of the lens from four?point fixation, and untouched conjunctiva over the scleral pockets. The fact that 20 had clear grafts and 18 visually improved, though two needed lens removal and one developed retinal detachment postsurgery is encouraging. More cases with longer follow?ups will help understand the technique better

Reverse graft suturing to avoid Descemet’s membrane detachment of glycerol-preserved donor cornea used for therapeutic penetrating keratoplasty during COVID-19 to overcome the tissue shortage – A novel surgical technique

To overcome tissue shortage during pandemic, we switched to 100% glycerol preservation of the donor cornea, which is economical and provides longer duration of storage than the short and intermediate storage mediums we normally use like McCAREY Kaufman (MK) or cornisol. During our initial few cases of therapeutic penetrating keratoplasty using glycerol preserved donor cornea, we faced spontaneous Descemet’s detachments resistant to air tamponade. We tried reverse graft suturing and successfully reinforced Descemet’s attachment along with air tamponade, in one of the cases after multiple failed air injections. In the subsequent two cases of infective keratitis needing therapeutic penetrating Keratoplasty, we took eight reverse sutures in between the eight cardinals, to anchor the Descemet’s membrane of the graft. Both the grafts showed attached Descemet’s and maintained good graft clarity. The reverse corneal suturing technique has not been described to the best of our knowledge and hope this helps our corneal fraternity.

Resource maximization during COVID-19 crunch – A novel graft marking technique to use one cornea for two recipients for either Descemet membrane endothelial keratoplasty or deep anterior lamellar keratoplasty

During pandemic, eye banks worldwide faced drastic reduction of corneal retrieval. Since precut tissues are uncommon in India, the onus is on corneal surgeons to maximize the donor corneal usage. The stumbling block making the stromal part unusable in the graft preparation of the Descemet membrane endothelial Keratoplasty is the stromal window creation to place the orientation mark on the stromal side of the folded graft. To overcome this, we simply marked directly on the folded Descemet graft, after partly stripping it from the donor cornea. Then, we unfolded, punched, and created two grafts after completely stripping it, retaining the Descemet part for the endothelial Keratoplasty and the stromal part for lamellar Keratoplasty. Initially, we used a special F marker, and later we marked an L using just a spatula. This simple technique needing no extra donor tissue or instrumentation maximizes the tissue utility with proper patient selection.

The outcome of 70/30 taco insertion through a 2.8 mm clear corneal incision in Descemet’s stripping automated endothelial keratoplasty - A retrospective analysis

Purpose: To assess the long?term outcome of graft insertion by taco technique through a 2.8?mm clear corneal incision in patients undergoing Descemet’s stripping automated endothelial keratoplasty (DSAEK). Methods: This is a retrospective interventional case series of 77 eyes of 75 patients who underwent DSAEK in a tertiary eye hospital. The DSAEK donor grafts were folded to an uneven 70/30 taco and held at a single point using Utrata forceps. All insertions were through a 2.8?mm clear corneal incision except the two aphakic patients requiring combined SFIOL implantation. All patients underwent a comprehensive eye examination preoperatively and were followed up to 6 years postoperatively. Visual outcomes, graft clarity, and complications of all and endothelial cell loss in 22 patients with available postop specular microscopy were analyzed. Results: Overall, 59 (76.6%) had clear grafts until the final follow?up. Visual acuity improved in 48 (62.3%) from an average of 1.3 to 0.8 logMAR (P = 0.0001). Vision was maintained in seven and worsened in four eyes. Grafts failed in 18 (23.3%) eyes: seven (9%) were primary failures, two post rejection, four done for failed PK did not clear, four due to worsening of preexisting glaucoma, and one noncompliant failed eventually. Average endothelial cell density reduction was 26.3% (mean preop donor 2419 to postop 1779 cells/mm2; P = 0.000). Conclusion: Our study shows good long?term clinical outcome of DSAEK using Taco technique through a 2.8?mm clear corneal incision in a tertiary hospital