Changing trends in corneal graft surgery： a ten-year review

AIM：To review indications and corneal tissue use for penetrating and lamellar surgery between 2002 and 2011.·METHODS：The surgical reports of corneal grafts performed during 2002-2011,using tissues supplied by the Eye Bank of Piedmont（Italy）,were reviewed retrospectively.Patient demographic data,date of intervention,indication for surgery,and surgical technique used were recorded.Surgical techniques included penetrating keratoplasty（PK）,deep anterior lamellar keratoplasty（DALK）and endothelial keratoplasty（EK）.The2test was used to compare the distribution of indications and types of surgical technique used,for corneal grafts done during 2002-2006 versus those done during 2007-2011.·RESULTS：The number of corneal grafts increased by30.7%from 2002-2006 to 2007-2011（from 1567 to 2048）.Comparing the two periods,both main indications and surgical techniques changed significantly.In 2007-2011,the proportion of interventions for aphakic/pseudophakic bollous keratopathy（from 16.8%to 21.3%）,graft failure（from 16.4%to 19.1%）and Fuchs endothelial dystrophy（from 12.8%to 16.7%）all increased significantly（〈0.05）,while those for keratoconus decreased significantly（from35.6%to 27.3%;〈0.001）.In 2007-2011,the proportion of PK decreased significantly（from 92.4%to 57.2%;〈0.001）while that of EK and DALK went from 0.4%to48 30.2%（〈0.001）and from 7.2%to 12.6%（〈0.001）respectively.·CONCLUSION：During 2002-2011 the number of interventions increased significantly for corneal endothelial diseases and graft failure.The growing demand for interventions for these diseases corresponded to the widespread adoption of EK techniques.The use of DALK also increased,but more moderately than EK procedures.

Is there a relationship between dopamine and rhegmatogenous retinal detachment?

Dopamine and its receptors have been widely studied in the neurological conditions and in the retina. In this study, we evaluated the possible role of dopamine in rhegmatogenous retinal detachment(RRD) by comparing the amount of 3,4-dihydroxyphenylacetic acid(DOPAC), a surrogate index of retinal dopamin levels, in the vitreous sample of patients affected by RRD with those affected by macular pucker and vitre ous hemorrhage. Our results showed that significantly higher levels of DOPAC were found in the vitreou sample of patients affected by RRD compared with those affected by vitreous hemorrhage and macula pucker(P = 0.002). Specifically, no trace of the substance was found in vitreous hemorrhage and macula pucker samples. A slightly significant positive correlation was found among DOPAC and post-operativ best corrected visual acuity(r = 0.470, P = 0.049). No correlation was found between DOPAC and the day elapsed between diagnosis and surgery(P = 0.317). For the first time our findings suggest that DOPAC i released in RRD, but not in other retinal diseases such as vitreous hemorrhage and macular pucker. More over, we showed a correlation between visual acuity outcome and the amount of DOPAC in the vitreous This might have a potential, although still unknown, implication in the pathogenesis of the disease and/o in the associated photoreceptors loss. This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Rome Tor Ver gata University Hospital(R.S.92.10) on September 24, 2010.