Photo Credit: Belus

The following is a summary of “Deep Anterior Lamellar Keratoplasty Using Dehydrated versus Standard Organ Culture-Stored Donor Corneas: Prospective Randomized Trial,” published in the June 2024 issue of Ophthalmology by Bovone et al.

Keratoconus is a progressive eye condition characterized by cornea thinning and bulging, which leads to visual distortion. One way to treat corneal transplantation is with deep anterior lamellar keratoplasty (DALK) surgery.

Researchers conducted a prospective study comparing outcomes of dehydrated or standard organ culture-stored donor corneas in DALK while treating eyes with keratoconus. 

They studied adult patients with keratoconus who underwent DALK surgery. After successful pneumatic dissection, patients were randomly assigned to receive either dehydrated (n=30) or standard organ culture-stored (n=30) donor corneas. The primary outcome was assessing the best-corrected vision, refractive astigmatism (RA), endothelial cell density (ECD), and complications after 12 months.

The results showed that postoperative vision didn’t differ significantly between groups at 6 months 0.030 (-0.53 to 0.10 logMAR, P=0.471) and at 12 months was -0.013 logMAR (95% CI, -0.10 to 0.08 logMAR; P=0.764). No differences in RA and ECD were observed at all time points. More patients in the dehydrated cornea group had epithelial defects in the initial 3 days (97% [29] vs. 33% [10]), but all eyes healed by day 7. 

Investigators concluded that dehydrated corneas in DALK were just as good as standard organ culture donor corneas. Dehydration could help preserve corneas long-term and prevent unused corneas from going to waste.

Source: sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016164202300934X