title: Corneal Transplantation in Disease Affecting Only One Eye: Does It Make a Difference to Habitual Binocular Viewing?
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Clarity of the transplanted tissue and restoration of visual acuity are the two primary metrics for evaluating the success of corneal transplantation. Participation of the transplanted eye in habitual binocular viewing is seldom evaluated post-operatively. In unilateral corneal disease, the transplanted eye may remain functionally inactive during binocular viewing due to its suboptimal visual acuity and poor image quality, vis-à-vis the healthy fellow eye.
  
  
  RESULTS
  This study prospectively quantified the contribution of the transplanted eye towards habitual binocular viewing in 25 cases with unilateral transplants [40 yrs (IQR: 32-42 yrs) and 25 age-matched controls [30 yrs (25-37 yrs)]. Binocular functions including visual field extent, high-contrast logMAR acuity, suppression threshold and stereoacuity were assessed using standard psychophysical paradigms. Optical quality of all eyes was determined from wavefront aberrometry measurements. Binocular visual field expanded by a median 21% (IQR: 18-29%) compared to the monocular field of cases and controls (p = 0.63). Binocular logMAR acuity [0.0 (0.0-0.0)] almost always followed the fellow eye's acuity [0.00 (0.00 --0.02)] (r = 0.82), independent of the transplanted eye's acuity [0.34 (0.2-0.5)] (r = 0.04). Suppression threshold and stereoacuity were poorer in cases [30.1% (13.5-44.3%); 620.8 arc sec (370.3-988.2 arc sec)] than in controls [79% (63.5-100%); 16.3 arc sec (10.6-25.5 arc sec)] (p<0.001). Higher-order wavefront aberrations of the transplanted eye [0.34 μ (0.21-0.51 μ)] were higher than the fellow eye [0.07 μ (0.05-0.11 μ)] (p<0.001) and their reduction with RGP contact lenses [0.09 μ (0.08-0.12 μ)] significantly improved the suppression threshold [65% (50-72%)] and stereoacuity [56.6 arc sec (47.7-181.6 arc sec)] (p<0.001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In unilateral corneal disease, the transplanted eye does participate in gross binocular viewing but offers limited support to fine levels of binocularity. Improvement in the transplanted eye's optics enhances its participation in binocular viewing. Current metrics of this treatment success can expand to include measures of binocularity to assess the functional benefit of the transplantation process in unilateral corneal disease.
authors.affiliation: Prof. Brien Holden Eye Research Centre, Hyderabad Eye Research Foundation, L V Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad- 500034 Telangana, India.|Bausch and Lomb School of Optometry, L V Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad- 500034 Telangana, India.
authors.forename: Praveen K
authors.initials: PK
authors.lastname: Bandela
authors.affiliation: Prof. Brien Holden Eye Research Centre, Hyderabad Eye Research Foundation, L V Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad- 500034 Telangana, India.|Bausch and Lomb School of Optometry, L V Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad- 500034 Telangana, India.
authors.forename: PremNandhini
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Satgunam
authors.affiliation: Prof. Brien Holden Eye Research Centre, Hyderabad Eye Research Foundation, L V Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad- 500034 Telangana, India.|Cornea and Anterior Segment Services, L V Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad- 500034 Telangana, India.
authors.forename: Prashant
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Garg
authors.affiliation: Prof. Brien Holden Eye Research Centre, Hyderabad Eye Research Foundation, L V Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad- 500034 Telangana, India.|Bausch and Lomb School of Optometry, L V Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad- 500034 Telangana, India.
authors.forename: Shrikant R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Bharadwaj
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003315:Cornea / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000601:surgery; D016039:Corneal Transplantation; D057108:Corneal Wavefront Aberration / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000601:surgery*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012029:Refraction, Ocular; D012030:Refractive Errors; D015348:Vision, Binocular / Q000502:physiology*; D014792:Visual Acuity