Broken Suture after Keratoplasty

Kim, Hyun Seung; Myong, Yoon Won

Abstract

We performed keratoplasty and did not remove suture material in 189 patients (189 eyes) after operation. Among them, 48 eyes which had clear grafts with spontaneous suture breakage had been analyzed retrospectively for the age, the sex distribution, the time and the site of broken suture, the preoperative diagnosis and the relationship between the suture breakage and the presence of vasculized recipient bed or suture method. The time when suture was broken after keratoplasty ranged from 3 months to 80 months(average 30 months). Leukoma cornea, 25 eyes(52.1%) and keratoconus, 13 eyes(27.1%) were the most common cause of keratoplasty and the others were corneal dystrophy, Fuchs dystrophy and re-keratoplasty. The most common site of broken suture was at superior quadrant(30 eyes, 62.5%), The vasculized recipient bed was found in 16 eyes, 13 eyes of leukoma cornea and 3 eyes of fe-keratoplasty in preoperative state. The statistical analysis showed significant relationship between the presence of vasculized recipient bed and the suture breakage(p<0.05). Suture was broken in 28 eyes(26.7%) of 105 eyes with single continuous suture, 6 eyes(21.9%) of 20 eyes with combined interupted suture and 14 eyes(21.9%) of 64 eyes with combined interupted and continuous suture. The statistical analysis showed no significant relationship between the suture method and the suture breakage(p>0.05).