Outcomes of Wound Dehiscence after Penetrating Keratoplasty and Lamellar Keratoplasty

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the incidence, causes, occurrence time, and range of wound and outcomes of wound dehiscence in patients treated by penetrating keratoplasty (PK) or lamellar keratoplasty (LK). METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed medical records of keratoplasty in Shandong Eye Hospital from January 2006 to June 2017. Thirty-one eyes of 30 patients had sustained wound dehiscence (WD) after surgical treatment. The surgical type, causes, occurrence time, extent of the wound, treatment, and outcomes were recorded. RESULTS: The study population consisted of 26 men and 4 women. The mean age at the occurrence of WD was 44.6 years old (range: 12–78 years), and the mean time from keratoplasty to WD was 45.9 months (range: 1–204 months). WD occurred in 23 eyes (23/1385, 1.66%) after PK and 8 eyes (8/1632, 0.49%) after LK (p < 0.05). Twenty-seven eyes (27/31, 87.0%) had trauma-induced dehiscence. The mean range of dehiscence was 5.5 o'clock. The vision ranged from 20/50 to light perception after wound suture. The eyes receiving LK had fewer serious complications than PK. CONCLUSIONS: Compared with LK, PK seems to be more prone to result in wound dehiscence. The WD after LK may be less severe. The visual acuity after treatment of WD can be worse in the eyes with PK than LK.