A SURVEY OF CORNEAL GRAFT PRACTICE IN THE UNITED-KINGDOM

A questionnaire designed to survey current corneal graft practice was sent to 498 consultant ophthalmologists in the United Kingdom, Three h undred and twenty-nine completed questionnaires (66%) returned, Sevent y per cent of these were consultants who perform corneal grafts, of wh om 36% had a specialist interest in corneal surgery, The survey found that most consultants preferred to perform corneal grafts on an inpati ent basis with the patient under general anaesthesia, Agreement (>80%) was also found in the following areas: use of a hand-held trephine, c oncurrent cataract surgery (if indicated), post-operative immunosuppre ssion, and refraction to assess post-operative astigmatism, There was less agreement on the choice of donor material, use of tissue matching , donor-trephine size disparity, suture technique, relative timing of trabeculectomy surgery (if required), the management of intraocular le nses during surgery for pseudophakic bullous keratopathy, timing of di scharge after surgery, use of prophylactic acyclovir, management of as tigmatism, routine removal of all corneal sutures, and discharge of un complicated cases from routine follow-up.