Purpose: To analyze the factors related to primary corneal graft failure after penetrating keratoplasty in the Corneal and External Diseases Section of the Federal University of São Paulo, Brazil. Methods: A retrospective study was performed using the charts of patients submitted to penetrating keratoplasty from July 1999 to March 2001. Cases of primary failure (group I) and patients submitted to the surgical procedure at the same period (group II) were selected and compared. Information collected from donors were age, cause of death, endothelial cell count, time between death and enucleation (T1), time between enucleation and preservation of the graft (T2) and time of tissue preservation until surgery (T3). Results: 164 patients were analyzed with 21 cases of primary failure (12.8%). The mean age of the donors of group I was 43.1 years (±22.0) and from group II was 47.9 years (±18.9). There was no statistical difference between the two groups considering the time intervals (T1, T2, T3). Causes of death included trauma, cancer and heart diseases. Conclusion: Differences in all analyzed factors were not significant between both groups. The difficulties in determining the causes of primary corneal graft failure suggests a multifactorial process involved in this problem. Well-trained Eye Bank staff and notifications about postoperative complications are important to decrease the primary failure incidence.
Corneal transplantation; Eye banks; Corneal diseases; Tissue preservation
