Clinical outcome of organ‐cultured preloaded DMEK compared to standard DMEK ‐ A single center study

Abstract

The use of ready‐to‐use grafts from specialized eye banks might provide a number of benefits, including graft quality control, assured availability at a certain operation time, a decreased likelihood of case cancellation, and a shorter and less sophisticated DMEK surgery, with a resulting lower risk of graft damage. However, it is critical to thoroughly establish the clinical safety of employing these preloaded tissues. Especially since most of the studies were prepared and stored under hypothermic conditions. There are only a few studies on preprepared tissues in organ culture, which are partly controversial.In this prospective study we included patients who received DMEK surgery at the Knappschaft Eye Clinic Sulzbach between 05/2021–12/2022. Patients received either a preloaded DMEK (pDMEK), prepared 5 days before surgery in the eye bank, or a conventional, directly before surgery, surgeon‐prepared DMEK (sDMEK).The preliminary data shows that preloaded DMEK is a safe procedure, but there is a trend towards more frequent rebubbling in the pDMEK group and a statistically non‐significant lower postoperative endothelial cell count compared to the sDMEK group. However, visual acuity and corneal thickness reduction were similar in both groups.