Long-term Changes of Corneal Endothelial Cells Following Keratoplasty

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to find out an effect of preoperative causative disease and rejection episodes on the survival rate of donor grafts by analyzing the changes of transplanted corneal endothelial cell density and central corneal thickness after keratoplasty through the long-term observation.We measured corneal thickness,corneal endothelial cells of forty seven patients(and their fifty seven eyes), all of whom were operated from June 1985 to February 1988.We divided those largely into three groups-inflammatory group, noninflammatory group, rejection group-depending on the preoperative corneal status. Without any exception there had been a drop of corneal endothelial cell density for the first one year and came stability at a slow pace after that 2040cells/mm2 in the third month, 1339cells/mm2 in first year,1013.7cells/mm2 in fifth year and 786.1 cells/mm2 in tenth year.The inflammatory and noninflammatory group showed a dull reduction rate from a year after the surgery and then showed increasing stability later on. A further decrease in corneal endothelial cell density was observed in the rejection group compared to the other ones.It could be concluded that an ever cautious selection of patients who seem to obtain the desired result after the surgery is all important because causative diseases in most cases have a decidedly significant impact on postoperative rejection episodes and survival rates.Also,a more attentive observation on corneal thickness, endothelial cell density is needed at least until a year after the corneal transplantation.