Reactivation of herpes virus after lamellar keratoplasty

Purpose: To determine if lamellar keratoplasty in rabbits latently infected with herpes simples virus type 1 (HSV-1) would stimulate graft recipients to shed virus and induce viral-specific corneal lesions. Methods: Rabbits latently infected with HSV-1 received lamellar allografts in one eye from normal uninfected rabbits and the contralateral eyes served as unoperated controls. Normal rabbits received lamellar grafts from rabbi ts latently infected with HSV-1. For 1 week after surgery, slit-lamp examin ation and ocular swab sampling were performed daily to assess viral reactiv ation. Results: The occurrence of positive swab cultures and corneal epithelial le sions after lamellar keratoplasty was significantly higher in operated eyes of latently infected rabbits when compared to the control eyes. Ocular she dding or recurrent lesions were not observed in the normal rabbits receivin g corneal grafts from latently infected donors. Conclusions: These results indicated that lamellar keratoplasty induces HSV -1 shedding and recurrent epithelial lesions in the eyes of rabbits latentl y infected with HSV-1, which received lamellar grafts, but not in the eyes of normal rabbits given lamellar grafts from HSV-I latently infected rabbit s. It seems that the site of viral latency is not the anterior corneal stro ma or the epithelium. Jpn J Ophthalmol 1999;43:257-261. (C) 1999 Japanese O phthalmological Society.