Resultados funcionales de la procuración corneal con fines de trasplante realizado por un licenciado en Optometría

Abstract

IntroductionIn Mexico, availability of donated corneas is very low. In recent years there has been a decrease in corneal tissue importation creating a need in tissue harvesting among public hospitals. Due to a shortage of available ophthalmologists, trained optometrist could cover adequately this rising need. AimsTo analyze quality of corneal tissue harvested by a trained optometrist and to identify long term functional results in visual acuity and graft rejection rate in patients receiving those corneal tissues. MethodsPatients who received corneal tissues harvested by a single optometrist from January 2011 to November 2012 were included. Endothelial density was measured with specular microscopy. Initial and final visual acuity was measured using Snellen chart. Graft rejection presence was identified in all transplanted patients. Descriptive statistics was performed with Stata 10.0 Results25 corneas were harvested. 4 non-viable corneal tissues were discarded. 21 patients underwent corneal transplantation Mean preoperative endothelial cell count was 2834.76 cel/mm2 (SD±186.91). Three patients (3 tissues) (14.28%) had graft rejection. Mean preoperative visual acuity was 1.24 LogMar (SD±0.2923). All patients had visual acuity improvement in their last eye examination (p<.001) with a mean visual acuity of 0.52 LogMar (SD±0.3792). Mean follow-up was 34.85 months (SD±3.6). ConclusionsAll patients in this study had improvement in their final visual acuity. Corneal graft rejection rate was similar to frequency reported elsewhere. Trained optometrist could be ideal health professional to harvest donor corneas.