Background: Penetrating keratoplasty in children has been documented to have a higher rate of graft failure and a worse visual prognosis than adult keratoplasty.
Methods: We undertook a retrospective review of all cases of primary penetrating keratoplasty performed in children 12 years of age or younger at the King Khaled Eye Specialist Hospital between January 1, 1990, and December 31, 2003.
Results: One hundred sixty-five primary penetrating keratoplasties were performed in 134 children during the study interval. The surgical indications were congenital opacities in 130 eyes (78.8%), acquired, traumatic opacities in 18 eyes (10.9%), and acquired, nontraumatic opacities in 17 eyes (10.3%). Among congenital opacities, 35 cases were caused by congenital hereditary endothelial dystrophy (CHED). The median follow-up for 73 grafts (44.2%) that remained clear was 50 months (range, 12-50 months), whereas the median follow-up for 92 grafts (55.8%) that failed was 6 months (range, 1-54 months). Kaplan-Meier graft survival was significantly higher at all postoperative intervals in eyes with CHED than for other surgical indications (p < 0.001). Eyes with CHED were significantly more likely to achieve ambulatory vision or vision >20/200 than eyes with other indications (p < 0.001).
Conclusions: Pediatric keratoplasty was associated with an excellent prognosis for graft survival in eyes with CHED and a fair prognosis for graft survival in eyes with non-CHED congenital opacities and acquired opacities. The best visual prognosis was obtained in eyes with CHED and the worst prognosis was for non-CHED congenital opacities.