The Use of Donor Corneas Which Have Undergone Refractive Surgery in Keratoplasty

Özet

Due to the rapid developments in techniques and devices used in refractive surgery, these surgeries are applied to more than before, and different techniques are emerging every day. Laser in situ keratomileusis, photorefractive keratectomy (PRK), and RK are the procedures performed most frequently. Eye Bank Association of America Medical Standards does not permit corneas from patients who have undergone refractive procedures to be used in penetrating keratoplasty, ante-rior lamellar keratoplasty, or tectonic grafting procedures. However, these standards allow these corneas for endothelial keratoplasty. According to these standards identification of these corneas is critical and studies for identification methods are going on. Several case reports have highlighted the difficulty in using post-refractive surgery corneas in penetrating keratoplasty. However, these corneas have been used successfully for endothelial keratoplasty with equivalent outcomes in topography, endothelial cell count, and visual acuity. The increase in endothelial keratoplasty procedures and the suc-cessful results of endothelial keratoplasty with post-refractive corneas are promising.