POST PENETRATING KERATOPLASTY ASTIGMATISM - A VIDEOKERATOSCOPIC ANALYSIS

Purpose To study tile factors which induce post keratoplasty astigmati sm. To assess fl-le reliability of different methods in the astigmatis m measurement and to study the visual acuity predicting factors, Metho ds We retrospectively studied the corneal topography in 60 eves with p enetrating keratoplasty after suture removal, using the CAS (Eye Sys) . The diagnosis was keratoconus in 65% of the cases and bullous kerato pathy in 15% of the cases. The graft was secured with a single running suture in 38.3% of the cases, ir interrupted sutures bz 23.3% of the cases, or a combination of both running and interrupted sutures ill re maining 28.3 %. Results The suture method, diagnosis and surgeon did n ot influence subjective refraction nor visual acuity, The topographic pattern correlated with subjectif cylinder (rs = 0.52 p = 0.02). The r efractive power cylinder (''Holladay diagnostic summary'') correlated well with subjective cylinder (rs = 0.81 p < 0.001) and visual acuiy ( rs = -0.63; p < 0.001). The Javal keratometry remains the best method to measure astigmatism axis (rs = 0.58; p < 0.001). Conclusions The Ho lladay diagnostic summary (refractive power) is a useful tool for eval uating qualitative outcome of corneal transplantation.