The Systemic Risk Factors for the Development of Infectious Keratitis after Penetrating Keratoplasty: A Population-Based Cohort Study

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Penetrating keratoplasty (PK) is a corneal surgery that is employed to repair the full-thickness corneal lesion. This study aimed to survey the possible systemic risk factors of infectious keratitis after penetrating keratoplasty (PK) via the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD). A retrospective case-control study was conducted, and 327 patients who received the PK were enrolled after exclusion. The main outcome was the development of infectious keratitis, and people were divided into those with infectious keratitis and those without the outcome. Cox proportional hazard regression was conducted to produce adjusted hazard ratios (aHRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of specific demographic indexes and systemic diseases on infectious keratitis. There were 68 patients who developed infectious keratitis after the whole follow-up period. The diabetes mellitus (DM) (aHR: 1.440, 95% CI: 1.122-2.874,