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Background: This study aimed to compare the rate of endothelial cell loss (ECL) after penetrating keratoplasty (PKP) for optical versus therapeutic grafts at 3-, 6-, and 12-month postoperatively. Furthermore, the study aimed to investigate postoperative graft viability and the rate of graft rejection during the first year of follow-up for both indications. Methods: This was a prospective, observational, comparative study that included patients who sought medical advice at the cornea outpatient clinic of Ain Shams University Hospitals, Cairo, Egypt. The study recruited 60 patients: group 1 included 30 transplanted corneas of 30 patients who underwent optical PKP for various indications, while group 2 included 30 transplanted corneas of 30 patients who underwent therapeutic PKP for unhealed, resistant infectious keratitis. Specular microscopy was performed for all patients at the 3-, 6-, and 12-month follow-up visits using Nidek CEM-530 specular microscopy. Postoperative clinical examinations were performed at the same follow-up visits to detect graft rejection. Results: There were no statistically significant differences between the groups concerning the postoperative timing of graft clarity or the rate of ECL at 3- and 6-months postoperatively; however, the rate of ECL was significantly greater in group 2 than in group 1 at 12-months postoperatively (P = 0.03), although the difference was small from a clinical point of view. Moreover, there was no statistically significant difference between the groups in terms of the graft rejection rate. Conclusions: Therapeutic PKP results were comparable to optical PKP with respect to graft viability, the rate of ECL, and the rate of graft rejection 1 year after grafting. How to cite this article: Shams A, Abdelmoneim Gaafar A, Elkitkat RS, Omar Yousif M. Endothelial cell loss rate after penetrating keratoplasty: Optical versus therapeutic grafts. Med Hypothesis Discov Innov Ophthalmol. 2021 Summer; 10(2): 74-79. https://doi.org/10.51329/mehdiophthal1424

Purpose: To compare the rate of endothelial cell loss (ECL) following penetrating keratoplasty (PKP) for optical and therapeutic indications and to state whether therapeutic PKP is inferior to optical PKP or not.Methods: This is a Prospective, observational, comparative study that included patients who sought medical advice at the Cornea Outpatient Clinic of Ain Shams University Hospitals. The study enrolled two groups; group 1 included 30 corneas of 30 patients who performed optical PKP for various purposes, while group 2 comprised 30 corneas of 30 patients who were planned for performing therapeutic PKP for unhealed, resistant corneal infections. Specular microscopy was done to all the patients at the 3-, 6- and 12-months visits using Nidek CEM-530 (NIDEK Co., Ltd. Japan) specular microscope. Results: There were no statistically significant differences between both groups as regards to the timing of the graft clarity following surgery or the rate of ECL at the 3- and 6- months intervals, yet the rate of ECL was significantly higher in group 2 compared to group 1 at the 12 months interval (P-value <0.05), though the statistical difference was narrow from a clinical point of view. There was also no statistically significant difference between both groups regarding the rate of graft rejection.Conclusion: Therapeutic PKP can be considered non-inferior to optical PKP regarding the graft viability, the rate of ECL, and the rate of graft rejection along a follow up interval of one year.

Purpose: To investigate the relationship between corneal astigmatism and corneal image quality parameters (i.e., root mean square [RMS] of some major corneal higher order aberrations [HOAs] "namely RMS of coma aberrations, RMS of trefoil aberrations, and RMS of spherical aberration [RMS-SA]" and Strehl ratio [SR] of point spread function [PSF]) by using the Sirius topographer (CSO Italia, Florence, Italy). Patients and Methods: This cross-sectional study used the Sirius topographer to evaluate the naïve corneas of right eyes (n = 1,356). The study included three groups which were based on the mean anterior corneal astigmatism value (group 1, <1 D; group 2, 1-2 D; and group 3, >2 D). Results: The corneal astigmatism showed statistically significant (yet narrow clinical) differences among the groups regarding all the examined parameters (P<0.001), except for the RMS-SA (which was statistically insignificant among the three groups). Correlation coefficients were weak between the corneal astigmatism and HOAs (correlation coefficient "r" not reaching 0.2 with any of the evaluated HOAs). Conclusion: Significant differences existed among the astigmatic groups regarding corneal HOAs, but the mean values were very close. The deduced relations between corneal astigmatism and corneal image quality parameters had limited clinical relevance. Thus, the corneal astigmatism should be evaluated separately from corneal image quality parameters, either when deciding between refractive correction modalities (customized versus optimized ablation techniques) or when evaluating corneal image quality of a naïve cornea.