Ophthalmology Outcomes
Cornea Surgery
The Mass Eye and Ear Cornea Service is highly skilled at correcting a variety of corneal disorders that disrupt vision. When appropriate, our clinicians perform more advanced lamellar procedures instead of penetrating keratoplasties in order to limit scarring and improve graft results.
Learn more about the Cornea ServiceDistribution of Corneal Surgery
During the 2023 calendar year, the Mass Eye and Ear Cornea Service performed 322 keratoplasty procedures. Of these, 114 (35.4%) were full-thickness, or penetrating keratoplasty (PK) surgeries, and 208 (64.6%) were partial-thickness, or lamellar keratoplasty surgeries. The subdivision of lamellar keratoplasty procedures was 123 Descemet’s membrane endothelial keratoplasties (DMEKs), 80 Descemet’s stripping endothelial keratoplasties (DSEKs) and Descemet’s stripping automated endothelial keratoplasties (DSAEK), and 5 Deep anterior lamellar keratoplasties (DALK).1-3 The pie chart above includes all keratoplasty procedures without exclusions.
Final Visual Acuity
In the year 2023, 208 partial thickness, or lamellar keratoplasty surgeries were performed. Of these 208 surgeries, the following were excluded: surgeries done in combination with retina or glaucoma, surgeries that were not a primary graft, pediatric cases, therapeutic cases and those that did not have a follow-up between 3-5 months post-surgery. This left 76 surgeries in which were included in the following analysis.
Of the 76 surgeries, 64 (84.2%) had an improved visual acuity (VA) 3-5 months post-surgery when compared to their visual acuity a week prior to surgery1. A further 8 cases (10.5%) had stable VA from prior to surgery. Only 4 (5.3%) had a worse VA when compared to their pre-surgery VA. Two of the cases with a worse VA were due to graft failure, one was due to prior epiretinal membrane and glaucoma, and one was due to the development of a new corneal infiltrate.
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Distribution of Corneal Surgery
1. Basak SK. Descemet stripping and endothelial keratoplasty in endothelial dysfunctions: three-month results in 75 eyes. Indian J Ophthalmol 2008 56(4): 291-296.
2. Koenig SB, Covert DJ. Early results of small-incision Descemet’s stripping and automated endothelial keratoplasty. Ophthalmology 2007; 114(2): 221-226.
3. Price MO, Giebel AW, Fairchild KM, et al. Descemet’s membrane endothelial keratoplasty: prospective multicenter study of visual and refractive outcomes and endothelial survival. Ophthalmology 2009; 116(12): 2361-2368.
Final Visual Acuity
1. Vail A, Gore SM, Bradley BA, et al. Corneal graft survival and visual outcome. A multicenter study. Corneal transplant follow-up study collaborators. Ophthalmology 1994; 101(1): 120-127.
