A 10-year review of indications for penetrating keratoplasty in a tertiary care setting in Karachi Pakistan

The retrospective study was conducted to determine the indications and outomes of penetrating keratoplasty(PKP) in a tertiary care setting in Pakistan. All eyes that had undergone PKP between January 2005 and December 2014 at the Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi, were included. Data were collected on the indications of PKP, graft survival (graft clarity at final follow-up), and best corrected visual acuity (BCVA). Kaplan-Meier's method was usedto analyse graft survival. Out of 437 eyes, 383(87%) were for visual purpose. Trauma-related corneal scarring 113(26.2%) was the leading cause of PKP, followed by keratoconus 74(17.1%), redo graft 56(13%), infection-related corneal opacity 46(10.6%), corneal dystrophy 44(10.2%) and bullous keratopathy 36(8.3%). The probability of graft survival at 30 months was 90% for keratoconusversus 75% for the non-keratoconus grafts. Most of the PKPs in this case series were due to preventable causes. Our long-term PKP results were favourable, with a graft survival ratecomparable to those of other centres.