Clinical profile of patients subject to penetrating keratoplasty in a brazilian reference service

With the development of new surgical techniques, instrumentation and pharmacological advances, corneal transplant procedures can undergo changes directly in the clinical profile of patients with the indication for penetrating keratoplasty technique. The aim of this study was to identify the clinical profile of patients undergoing penetrating keratoplasty and the main indicating conditions at a university hospital in Northeast Brazil. This is an epidemiological, cross-sectional, descriptive study performed using data from medical records of 241 patients who underwent keratoplasty between January/2010 and December/2014. From the total keratoplasties performed in the hospital during the study period, 88.37% were carried out by penetrating technique. Of these, 50.44% were performed in male patients with an average age of 55.2 years. The main indications were keratoconus, followed by bullous keratopathy and keratitis. Preexisting clinical conditions for penetrating keratoplasty were found, such as changes in vascularization, glaucoma, previous surgery, aphakic and pseudophakic eyes and keratoplasties combined with other types of surgeries. Knowledge of the clinical profile of patients who underwent penetrating keratoplasty enabled identification of the main ocular diagnoses that result in this type of transplant as a therapeutic indication. From this, it is possible to point out the main pre-existing medical conditions of penetrating keratoplasty that may represent potential risk factors for complications in the postoperative period and even lead to graft failure. We suggest that further studies be carried out on a thematic