Long-term outcomes of combined penetrating keratoplasty with iris-sutured intraocular lens implantation

Purpose: To evaluate the long-term outcomes of combined penetrating keratoplasty with iris-sutured posterior chamber intraocular lens implantation. Participants: Patients (264 eyes) with aphakic and pseudophakic bullous keratopathy. Design: Retrospective case series. Intervention: Penetrating keratoplasty combined with implantation of an iris-sutured posterior chamber intraocular lens performed by a single surgeon. Methods: Data were gathered from the institutional database during a period of 10 years (1989-1999) and analyzed using customized software. Main Outcome Measures: Graft survival rate, visual acuity, and intraoperative and postoperative complications. Results: Two-hundred fifty-two consecutive patients (264 eyes) were operated. Graft survival rates were 95% at 1 year, 89% at 2 years, and 81% at 5 years and were comparable to the results of previous corneal transplant studies. Among 180 patients (1191 eyes) with a follow-up of at least 2 years (range, 2-11 years; mean, 5 years), the visual acuity at final follow-up visit, compared with preoperative visual acuity was improved in 72% of eyes (mean preoperative visual acuity, 20/250; mean postoperative visual acuity, 20/60). No intraoperative complications were encountered. Conclusions: Combined penetrating keratoplasty with iris-sutured posterior chamber intraocular lens implantation offers significant vision benefits in this patient group.