Recent indications of endothelial keratoplasty at a tertiary eye care center in South India.

Abstract

To describe the patient demographics and recent clinical indications of endothelial keratoplasty (EK) in patients presenting to a tertiary eye care center in India. This cross-sectional hospital-based study included 2,182 patients who underwent EK between Jan 2016 and Dec 2019 (4years period). The data were collected using an electronic medical record system. Overall, 2,632 eyes of 2,182 patients underwent EK during the study period. Median age was 62 (IQR: 48-70) years and adults (94.45%) comprised most of the cohort. More commonly, the patients were male (55.59%) and from the higher socioeconomic strata (67.51%). The corneal signs included corneal edema (70.93%), corneal scarring (29.60%), corneal vascularization (16%) and guttae (12.88%). The major indications of EK were post-cataract surgery corneal edema in 1331 (50.57%) patients, endothelial dystrophy in 537 (20.4%) patients, failed graft in 535 (20.33%) patients causing a vision impairment of > 20/400-20/1200 in about a half (45.55%) of the patients. Descemet stripping endothelial keratoplasty (DSEK) and Descemet membrane endothelial keratoplasty (DMEK) were performed in 2075 (78.84%) and 557(21.16%) patients, respectively. EK is commonly performed during the sixth decade of life and in males. The most performed procedure is DSEK. The commonest indication was post-cataract surgery corneal edema.