Intermediate Term (3-6 Years Post Surgery) Outcome of Keratoprosthesis in 5 Nigerian Eyes

Abstract

Objective: The aim of this study is to report on the intermediate (3-6 years post surgery) outcome of keratoprosthesis implant surgery in Nigerian eyes.
Methods: This is a descriptive study of 5 eyes of 5 consecutive Nigerian patients that had keratoprosthesis at University of Benin Teaching Hospital and DDS Eye Surgery, Benin City,
between February 1994 and May 1995. The 5 eyes were followed up for 3-6 years.
The visual acuity and observed complications were monitored in each eye.
Results: All the patients in this study were male, with an age range 30 to 76 years and a mean age of 42 years. Preoperatively, one eye had corneal decompensation following
cataract extraction, while the other 4 eyes had scarred and vascularized cornea from various causes; all 5 eyes had light perception (LP) vision pre-operation. Post-operatively, the 5 eyes had VA ranging from 6/60 to NLP, after a variable follow-up period of 3-6 years. Complications included development of tough vascularized retroprosthetic membrane
(4 eyes) and infective endophthalmitis in one eye.
Conclusion: The intermediate-term outcome of keratoprosthesis surgery in Nigerian eyes shows that it is unsuitable, largely because of the problem of retroprosthetic membrane.

Keywords: keratoprosthesis, retroprosthetic membrane,
cornea

Nigerian Journal of Opthalmology Vol. 15 (2) 2007: pp. 39-43