Penetrating keratoplasty in children under 3 years old with congenital corneal opacities

AIM: To evaluate the graft rejection and visual outcomes after penetrating keratoplasty (PK) in the presence of various congenital corneal opacities in children. METHODS: In this retrospective cohort study, children who underwent PK were then followed for 5y. The patient's medical records were collected from June 2014 until June 2019 and analyzed in December 2019. All patients were children under three years old with congenital corneal opacities with or without microcornea who came to a pediatric ophthalmologist and underwent PK in Jakarta Eye Center (JEC). Beforehand, all children have participated in a thorough evaluation for PK. In the case of severe microcornea was not advised to undergo surgery. The visual outcomes and graft survival rate were described in percentages. The graft survival plot was presented with Kaplan-Meier, while the visual acuity was analyzed using the Wilcoxon signed ranks test. RESULTS: Sixteen eyes from eleven patients (seven girls and four boys) underwent PK. The graft survival rate of the first 6, 12, and 18 mo later of keratoplasty was 100%, 83.3%, and 66.7%, respectively. The overall mean survival time is 22mo (standard error 2.419), and no significant difference between the patients underwent PK before and after 36mo of their age (P=0.52). The graft failure was 50%, and post-surgery complications included cataract 43.7%, band keratopathy 12.5%, and scleromalasia 6.25%. Wilcoxon test analysis of visual acuity post keratoplasty was not statistically significant (P=0.34), while overall showed 44% improvements of visual outcome for 5y of follow-up. With a good survival at one year up to 22mo (83.3%), the visual acuity could be achieved (63%), and showed improvements (44%) during follow-up. CONCLUSION: The complications are frequent for pediatric PK. Thus, corneal surgery on infants requires careful case selection, adequate pre-operative evaluation, skilled surgery (optical correction), very close cooperation family–physician, intensive post-operation care, and amblyopia management in the future.

Possible association between viral infection and poor survival of the corneal graft after penetrating keratoplasty in patients with congenital corneal opacity: a cohort study

BackgroundCongenital corneal opacity (CCO) is a rare disorder. Penetrating keratoplasty (PK) is the main surgical option for CCO, but many factors affect graft survival. Therefore, this study aimed to perform a virological examination of CCO specimens after PK to explore the relationship between virological factors and graft survival after PK.MethodsThis prospective study included consecutive patients (<6 months of age) diagnosed with CCO and treated with PK at Beijing Tongren Hospital from August 2017 to January 2018. Next-generation sequencing was used to detect viral DNA in the CCO specimens. The survival of the primary graft was analysed using the Kaplan-Meier method.ResultsOverall, 24 eyes of 24 infants were treated with PK during the study period. The mean age at surgery was 4.8±1.1 months. Epstein-Barr virus DNA was detected in two specimens, varicella-zoster virus DNA in one specimen, herpes simplex virus DNA in three specimens and cytomegalovirus DNA in one specimen. In the virus-positive group, only one (14.3%) graft remained clear during follow-up. In contrast, in the virus-negative group (n=17), 13 (76.5%) grafts were still clear at the last follow-up. The mean survival of the grafts in the virus-positive group was significantly shorter than in the virus-negative group (11.0±9.8 months vs 27.1±7.7, p<0.001).ConclusionThe presence of viral DNA in CCO specimens might be associated with poor graft survival after PK.

Histomorphological view of the cornea investigated by laser confocal microscopy in keratoplasty

Introduction. Corneal transplantation is the most successful and commonly performed allotransplantation procedure as compared with other organs and tissues. Over 100,000 corneal transplantations are performed worldwide every year.Purpose. This study investigated whether in vivo confocal microscopy (IVCM) can aid in the diagnosis of a graft rejection reaction by detecting changes in cellular structures and density of immune cells after penetrating keratoplasty.Materials and methods. The study included thirty-four eyes of 34 patients who underwent penetrating keratoplasty (7 eyes with corneal graft rejection, 27 without rejection). The average age of patients is 51.1 ± 13.6 years (from 23 to 76 years). The follow-up period ranged from 12 to 36 months (24.5 ± 4.84 months). Follow-up was performed at 1, 3, 6, 12 months and annually after PKP. To study the morphology of the cornea all patients underwent IVCM to assess the basal epithelium, subbasal layer, stroma and endothelium. Immune cells were identified and evaluated for the shape, length of the processes and their density.Results. Patients with corneal graft rejection demonstrated significant accumulation of corneal dendritic-like immune cells compared to patients with non-rejected grafts. In addition, the cells acquired a more mature morphology (grade 2–3). The density of dendritic cells (DC) was 809.17 ± 342.19 (p < 0.001). A positive correlation was found between DC density and graft rejection (p < 0.001). As well the patients showed signs of endothelial failure with low endothelial cell density and pleomorphism, increased light scattering and hyperreflectivity of the stroma.Conclusions. In a complex of diagnostic measures, confocal microscopy may provide a valuable clinical adjunctive tool in diagnosis and management of early corneal graft rejection.

To Evaluate the Effectiveness of Plasmapheresis as a Method for the Graft Disease Prevention in Patients with Keratoplasty

Purpose: to evaluate the effectiveness of plasmapheresis as a method for preventing and treating the graft rejection reaction in corneal transplantation.Patients and methods. The study involved patients with surgical pathology of the cornea, who underwent a prophylactic course of plasmapheresis procedures and underwent penetrating keratoplasty (Main group); and patients with surgical pathology of the cornea who underwent penetrating keratoplasty, but did not undergo plasmapheresis (Comparison group), whose data were analyzed retrospectively. The control group consisted of conditionally healthy individuals of both genders. Subgroups of patients with high and low risk keratoplasty were also identified within the Main group and the Comparison group.Results. Patients with keratoplasty who received a course of therapeutic plasmapheresis in the perioperative period demonstrated a statistically significant increase in the number of cases of a decrease in the level of C-reactive protein and a statistically significant decrease in the median values of the mean stimulated cytochemical index and the mobilization coefficient. Depending on the risk group for keratoplasty, the patients showed different dynamics of the levels of the studied interleukins after the course of plasmapheresis and keratoplasty. In patients of the Comparison group who did not receive a course of plasmapheresis in the preoperative period, over a period of 1.3 years, 22 cases (24 %) developed graft disease, while patients of both subgroups of the Main group who received a course of therapeutic plasmapheresis in the preoperative period, didn’t demonstrate any cases of graft disease. In patients of the Comparison group (in total for two subgroups), the maximum number of cases of graft disease (n = 24) was observed in the first 500 days after surgery. At the same time, the patients of the Main group who underwent plasmapheresis had the best graft survival rates: during the observation period, there were no cases of graft disease (in both subgroups).Conclusion: the obtained data indicate the ability of plasmapheresis, performed in the perioperative period, to prevent the development of graft disease in patients with keratoplasty.

Correction of postkeratoplastic astigmatism by intrastromal corneal segments implantation using a femtosecond laser

Background. After penetrating keratoplasty, mild to high induced corneal astigmatism was observed in each case. The existing choice of correction of postkeratoplastic astigmatism is aimed at fi nding an individual approach in order to compensate for it and not weaken the biomechanical properties of the corneal graft.The aim: to analyze the clinical, functional, and morphological results of postkeratoplastic astigmatism correction by implantation of intrastromal corneal segments using a femtosecond laser.Methods. 22 patients were examined before and 1 year after surgery. The operation was performed under local anesthesia: stage I – an intrastromal tunnel was formed using a femtosecond laser “Femto Visum” 1 MHz (Optosystems, Russia); stage II – the intrastromal corneal segments were implanted. The results were assessed using standard and special research methods using optical coherence tomography Visante OCT (Zeiss, Germany), keratotopography (Tomey-5, Japan), optical corneal analyzer ORA (Reichert, USA), laser tindalemetry FC-2000 (Kowa, Japan) and confocal microscope Confoscan-4 (Nidek, Japan).Results. Before the operation, uncorrected visual acuity averaged 0.09 ± 0.05, after a year – 0.50 ± 0.16; best corrected visual acuity – 0.30 ± 0.12 and 0.60 ± 0.05 respectively; cylindrical component of refraction – –10.29 ± 3.12 and –2.20 ± 0.64 D respectively; mean keratometry value – 43.59 ± 2.14 and 38.56 ± 1.75 D respectively; corneal hysteresis – 7.92 ± 1.22 and 8.95 ± 1.05 mm Hg respectively; corneal resistance factor – 7.01 ± 1.81 and 8.44 ± 1.44 mm Hg respectively; protein fl ux in the moisture of the anterior chamber – 2.97 ± 0.28 and 3.04 ± 0.24 f/ms respectively; endothelial cell density – 1521 ± 327 and 1475 ± 419 cells/mm2 respectively.Conclusion. Intrastromal corneal segments implantation into a corneal graft using a femtosecond laser has efficiency and safety method in correcting postkeratoplastic astigmatism.

Corneal graft survival analysis after penetrating keratoplasty in a retrospective cohort study

Purpose. To assess the results of penetrating keratoplasty and identify the risk factors for the graft disease (GD) development. Material and methods. Data of 582 patients after corneal transplantation performed in the period since 2011 to 2019 for keratoconus (41%), as well for corneal leucorrhoea and dystrophies (59%), aggravated by concomitant pathology, the so-called high-risk keratoplasty (HRK) were analyzed in a retrospective cohort study. We estimated the functional results and incidence of GD. The calculation of the t-criterion; cross-tabulation method; Kaplan–Meier survival analysis and multivariate analysis were applied. Results. As a result of penetrating keratoplasty, the BCVA (best corrected visual acuity) in patients with keratoconus increased by 20%; in patients with HRK – by 8%. In the general group the graft survival rate was 72%, while the 8-year successful graft engraftment in patients with keratoconus comprised 91%, with HRK – 60%. A significant relationship of the GD development with preoperative diagnosis and rekeratoplasty was determined. The risk of GD incidence was minimal in patients under 30 years of age and maximum in patients aged from 50 to 70 years. Survival rates for corneal transplants were better in men than in women. Conclusion. Penetrating keratoplasty in patients with keratoconus provides a good functional result with a minimal risk of GD development. With penetrating keratoplasty in high-risk patients, the effectiveness of surgical interventions is significantly lower (by ~30%). Key words: keratoconus, penetrating keratoplasty, corneal transplantation, survival analysis