THE VISUAL PROGNOSIS FOLLOWING HLA-MATCHED KERATOPLASTY FOR HIGH-RISKPATIENTS

We report the clinical details of 30 HLA-matched corneal grafts with a mean follow-up of 29 months. Few of the patients were immunologically naive as almost all had received previous unmatched grafts. The two-y ear survival rate was 77%, comparable with other series. A majority of patients obtained good vision, and this was statistically superior to a recent large series. Almost all remained on their topical medicatio n indefinitely. The contralateral visual acuity was surprisingly good, but there are few published data for comparison. We were unable to do cument an enhanced prognosis with a higher degree of HLA-A, B or DR ma tch, possibly because of the small numbers.