CORNEAL TRANSPLANTATION IN THE UNITED-KINGDOM AND REPUBLIC-OF-IRELAND

The Corneal Transplant Follow up Study has registered 4560 corneal gra fts performed in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland from July 1987 to June 1991. Rates of reported grafts doubled during that time. This increase was greater for surgeons and regions reporting fewer gra fts, but was consistent across patient factors. Eleven of 428 consulta nts were responsible for over 25% of grafts, and their patients' chara cteristics differed significantly from others. Overall, reasons for gr afting were visual only (77%), visual and other (16%), and non-visual (7%). Most frequent diagnoses were endothelial failure (38%), inflamma tion (26%), and keratoconus (20%). Age ranged from 2 months to 97 year s, and differed markedly with diagnosis. Eighteen per cent of transpla nts were regrafts, and 40% were vascularised preoperatively.