Indications for corneal transplantation at a tertiary referral center in tehran.
OBJECTIVE
To report the indications and techniques of corneal transplantation at a tertiary referral center in Tehran over a 3-year period.


METHODS
Records of patients who had undergone any kind of corneal transplantation at Labbafinejad Medical Center, Tehran, Iran from March 2004 to March 2007 were reviewed to determine the indications and types of corneal transplantation.


RESULTS
During this period, 776 eyes of 756 patients (including 504 male subjects) with mean age of 41.3±21.3 years underwent corneal transplantation. The most common indication was keratoconus (n=317, 40.8%) followed by bullous keratopathy (n=90, 11.6%), non-herpetic corneal scars (n=62, 8.0%), infectious corneal ulcers (n=61, 7.9%), previously failed grafts (n=61, 7.9%), endothelial and stromal corneal dystrophies (n=28, 3.6%), and trachoma keratopathy (n=26, 3.3%). Other indications including Terrien's marginal degeneration, post-LASIK keratectasia, trauma, chemical burns, and peripheral ulcerative keratitis constituted the rest of cases. Techniques of corneal transplantation included penetrating keratoplasty (n=607, 78.2%), deep anterior lamellar keratoplasty (n=108, 13.9%), conventional lamellar keratoplasty (n=44, 5.7%), automated lamellar therapeutic keratoplasty (n=8, 1.0%), and Descemet stripping endothelial keratoplasty (n=6, 0.8%) in descending order. The remaining cases were endothelial keratoplasty and sclerokeratoplasty.


CONCLUSIONS
In this study, keratoconus was the most common indication for penetrating keratoplasty which was the most prevalent technique of corneal transplantation. However, deep anterior lamellar keratoplasty is emerging as a growing alternative for corneal pathologies not involving the endothelium.
Ophthalmic Research Center, Labbafinejad Medical Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Mohammad
M
Zare
Mohammad-Ali
MA
Javadi
Bahram
B
Einollahi
Alireza
A
Baradaran-Rafii
Siamak
S
Zarei Ghanavati
Mohammad-Reza Jamshidi
MR
Farsani
Parviz
P
Mohammadi
Sepehr
S
Feizi