ABSTRACT
Introduction: Corneal disease ranks 5th among the causes ofblindness and it forms 7.1% of total blindness and is a seriouspublic health problem resulting in medical and economicburden to the nation. A study was carried out to evaluateregrafts with emphasis on factors which caused failure oforiginal graft and factors influencing graft success after repeatPK.Material and methods: The prospective study consisted ofcases of graft failure attending Eye Bank Clinic at CommandHospital, Kolkata, from Jan 2017 to Dec 2018. Intervalbetween primary graft and repeat PK was minimum of 06months. All the surgeries were performed by a single surgeon.Results: Out of 164 PK, 28 regraft (17.07%) were performed.The regrafting were carried out on cases of graft failure dueto endothelial failure (39.3%), allograft rejection (17.8%),recurrence of disease (14.2%), secondary glaucoma (10.7%),ocular surface disorder and dry eye (10.7%), Pseudomonasinfection (3.6%) and unknown (3.6%). In 13 cases simplerepeat keratoplasty and in rest 15 cases combined procedureswere done. 17 cases (60.7%) had clear regrafts and in 11cases the regraft became opaque during follow up period of06 months to 2 years (average 12.6 months). Pseudophakicbullous keratopathy had greater rate of clear regrafts (71.4%).09 out of 11 cases of failure had one of the preoperative factorslike raised IOP, anterior synechiae, corneal vascularizationand younger recipient age group. Vascularization of recipientbed was associated with greater rate of graft failure (60%).Conclusions: Better visual outcome and graft survival inregraft can be achieved by understanding the underlyingpathology and formulating a preoperative plan.