JUN 18, 2014
By Jennifer Li, MD
Cornea/External Disease
This prospective study that corneal transplantation has an overall positive impact on quality of life (QOL) in elderly patients and identified factors associated with better QOL-related outcomes.
This study may be of interest to corneal surgeons as they consider whether or not their patients are good candidates for corneal transplantation surgery. They can use this data to better counsel patients and manage expectations more appropriately.
The study’s authors used a modified version of the Visual Function Index (VF-14) questionnaire to determine the impact of corneal transplantation on vision-related QOL in 86 patients age ≥ 65 years who had surgery between 2008 and 2010 at the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore.
DSAEK patients were more likely to report improvement in QOL than penetrating keratoplasty patients. Also, older patients within this elderly population were more likely to have an improvement in QOL, and patients with higher preoperative baseline visual acuity generally had higher postoperative QOL and overall satisfaction with surgery.
The authors conclude that based on these findings, transplant surgery should be considered for patients 65 years and older.