Kristina Spaniol, Martin Hellmich, Klara Borgardts, Christian Girbardt, Philip Maier, Thomas Reinhard, Necip Torun, Anna‐Karina Maier, Sebastian Thaler, Karl U. Bartz‐Schmidt, Peter Wiedemann, Berthold Seitz, Loay Daas, Silvia Schrittenlocher, Claus Cursiefen, Björn Bachmann, and Gerd Geerling
Descemet membrane endothelial keratoplasty (DMEK) accounts for50% of all corneal transplants in Germany. So far, no data from such a large multicenter study have been published.This retrospective study included 3200 DMEKs at seven departments performed for Fuchs endothelial corneal dystrophy (FECD) or bullous keratopathy (BK). We evaluated best corrected visual acuity (BCVA, logMAR), endothelial cell density (ECD, cells/mmFor patients without vision-limiting comorbidities (74% of all analysed eyes, n = 2270), mean BCVA improved from 0.6 ± 0.4 logMAR to 0.2 ± 0.2 logMAR 6 months (p 0.001, n = 1441) and 0.1 ± 0.2 logMAR 12 months (p = 0.001, n = 1402) postoperatively. BK- had a worse BCVA compared to FECD-patients (0.3 ± 0.5 vs. 0.1 ± 0.2 logMAR [p 0.001] at 1 year). ECD declined from 2465 ± 259 cells/mmDescemet membrane endothelial keratoplasty increases visual acuity with low transplant failure- and rejection-rates. FECD has a better outcome than BK. Since a quarter of all patients need a rebubbling, this should be included in the informed consent. Remarkably, one rebubbling has no influence on the outcome.