The outcome of penetrating keratoplasty for corneal scarring due to herpes simplex keratitis

PURPOSE:: To determine the outcomes of penetrating keratoplasty (PK) for treatment of corneal scarring caused by Herpes simplex virus (HSV) keratitis, and whether the corneal scar type affects treatment outcome. METHODS:: A retrospective analysis of patients who underwent PK for HSV-related corneal scarring between January 2008 and July 2011 was performed. The patients were categorized into two groups. Group 1 consisted of patients with a quiescent herpetic corneal scar and group 2 consisted of patients who developed a corneal descemetocele or perforation secondary to persistent epithelial defects with no active stromal inflammation. The mean follow-up was 21.30 ± 14.59 months. The main parameters evaluated were recurrence of herpetic keratitis, graft rejection, graft failure, visual acuity, and graft survival rate. RESULTS:: There were 42 patients in group 1 and 13 in group 2. Preoperative BCVA varied from hand movements to 0.7 logMAR. Postoperatively, 34 patients (61.8%) achieved visual acuity of 0.6 logMAR or more. Recurrence of HSV keratitis was noted in 12 (28.57%) eyes in group 1 and 4 (30.76%) eyes in group 2 (p=0.40). Graft rejection occurred in 4 eyes (9.52%) in group 1 and in 3 (23.07%) eyes in group 2 (p=0.58). The 1-, 2-, and 3-year graft survival rates were 91.9%, 76.0%, and 65.1% in group 1, and 89.5%, 76.0%, and 63.6% in group 2 (p=0.91), respectively. CONCLUSIONS:: Although there were different recurrence and graft rejection rates for two groups, the graft survival rates at 3 years were similar. According to our results, without inflammation, corneal herpetic scarring with a descemetocele or perforation achieved similar graft survival rates with quiescent herpetic corneal scars.