Demographic and clinical profile, surgical outcome, and quality of life in patients who underwent bilateral lamellar corneal grafts

PURPOSE: Lamellar corneal grafts have revolutionized the management of corneal blindness by replacing only the disease specific corneal layers. To the best of our knowledge, there is no study in literature describing the outcomes of bilateral lamellar keratoplasty in the Indian population. The aim of this work was to study the demographic profile, surgical outcomes, and quality of life in patients who underwent bilateral lamellar keratoplasty and to assess the correlation between these three. METHODS: An observational cross-sectional study was conducted on 47 patients who underwent bilateral deep anterior lamellar keratoplasty (DALK) (n = 31) or descemet stripping automated endothelial keratoplasty (DSAEK) (n = 16) with a minimum follow-up of 6 months after the second surgery. Demographic parameters were collected by interview, surgical outcomes by clinical examination, and quality of life by a questionnaire. RESULTS: A total of 47 patients were evaluated, women 42.56%, (n = 20) and men 57.44% (n = 27) with 38.3% being in 18–30 years age group and 23.4% above 60 years; 17.02% patients had a good socioeconomic status (score >60) and 61.70% had poorer socioeconomic status (score <50). Quality of life score (VR-QoL) was ≥50 in 82.9% patients and ≥70 in 14.89%. No significant association existed between VR-QoL scores and demographic factors. However, statistically significant association existed between VR-QoL and age of patient (P < 0.05), postoperative vision (P ≤ 0.05), and contrast sensitivity (P ≤ 0.01). CONCLUSION: Bilateral lamellar corneal grafts provide satisfactory visual outcomes compatible with day-to-day functioning. VR-QoL has a direct correlation to the age, visual acuity, contrast sensitivity, and inverse correlation with lenticule thickness in DSAEK and residual bed thickness in DALK.