A COMPARISON OF CORNEAL AUTOGRAFTS WITH HOMOGRAFTS

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: To determine whether ensured graft acceptanc e through the use of corneal autografts yields a better outcome than w hen standard homografts are used. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Four patients who needed a corneal transplant in one eye and who had a blind fellow eye underwent a corneal autograft in the eye with corneal pathology. R ESULTS: Three of the four patients had clear grafts on long-term follo w-up, and no patient experienced immunologic graft rejection. However, two of the four patients had large amounts of astigmatism postoperati vely. CONCLUSION: Autografts provided protection against immunologic g raft rejection. However, because corneal autografts yielded unpredicta ble amounts of astigmatism, their outcomes are not necessarily better than those of homografts.