To compare the survival of corneal grafts and the changes in endothelial cell density in penetrating keratoplasty using domestic or imported corneas.

Medical records of 236 eyes of 211 patients who underwent penetrating keratoplasty from November 2004 to August 2011 in Seoul National University Hospital and were followedup at least 1 year were retrospectively reviewed. After excluding the patients who received the combined surgeries with other surgeries except cataract surgery, the eyes were divided into 2 groups depending on the origin of donor tissue resulting in a domestic cornea group (108 eyes) and an imported cornea group (128 eyes). Recipient demographics, preoperative diagnosis, donor age, death-to-preservation time, death-to-operation time and pre-and postoperative visual acuities were compared between the 2 groups. Kaplan-Meier survival and changes in endothelial cell density were analyzed at 3, 6 and 12 months and then every year.

The most common preoperative diagnoses were regraft and corneal opacity in the domestic and imported cornea groups, respectively, without statistical difference. Death-to-preservation time was 8.9 hours and 8.0 hours in the domestic and imported cornea groups, respectively, without statistical difference. However, death-to-operation time was longer in the imported cornea group (4.98 days) than in the domestic cornea group (2.18 days). There were no differences in pre- and postoperative visual acuities, decrease in annual changes in endothelial densities and survival up to 3 years between the 2 groups. In addition, the survival and decreased annual changes in endothelial densities were not different from each other in penetrating keratoplasty combined with cataract surgery or in penetrating keratoplasty for a corneal edema.

Our study results suggest that clinical outcomes of the penetrating keratoplasty using imported corneas are comparable in efficacy when compared with the clinical outcomes using domestic corneas.