Donor Endothelial Cell Count Does Not Correlate With Descemet Stripping Automated Endothelial Keratoplasty Transplant Survival After 2 Years of Follow-up
Purpose: To analyze the influence of low endothelial cell density (ECD) of donor cornea tissue, donor age, and sex on the transplant survival rate after Descemet stripping automated endothelial keratoplasty (DSAEK).
Methods: Graft ECD, age, and sex of donors used for DSAEK (n = 1789) during 7 years (2007–2014) in 4 Scandinavian hospitals were assessed for potential association with transplant survival at 2 years of follow-up using a Cox regression model correcting for confounding factors. The data were obtained from The Swedish Cornea Transplant Registry.
Results: Transplant failure occurred in 196 patients, with 69 early failures during the first 3 postoperative months, and 127 late secondary failures. Twenty-five of the late secondary failures were due to rejection. Reversible rejections occurred in 67 patients. There was no significant impact of donor age [hazard ratio (HR) 1.0, 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.99–1.02, P = 0.32] or endothelial cell count (HR 1.00, 95% CI, 0.99–1.01, P = 0.3) on the survival rate of DSAEK transplants at 2 years of follow-up. The use of donor grafts with low ECD (
Source: Cornea - Category: Opthalmology Tags: Clinical Science Source Type: research