The fate of corneal transplants from the Zurich eye bank

Abstract

In a retrospective study, we investigated the survival of transplanted corneal material, which had been sent between 1988 and 1989 from the Zurich Eye Bank to both domestic and foreign physicians and clinics. A questionnaire was used to determine diagnosis, transplant survival, cause of any opacification, the occurrence of problems of epithelialisation, loosening of sutures, as well as vascularization of the host cornea. Of a total of 416 corneas, 327 or 79% could be evaluated. The mean follow-up periods of the various diagnostic groups ranged from 11 to 20 months, with a range of 1 to 35 months. After 18 months, the rate of clear transplants was 96% in the keratokonus group. This rate was significantly better than that of the bullous keratopathy group (77%, p less than 0.013) or that of all other diagnosis groups (72%, p less than 0.001). The difference to the 81% survival rate of the group with Fuchs' endothelial dystrophy was not significant. The most frequent cause of transplant opacification was primary transplant failure. Analysis of possible risk factors further confirmed that transplant opacification occurs more frequent in the presence of vascularization of the host cornea.