Corneal Transplantation and Rejection

With technical problems largely solved and with improved quality of donor material, the immune allograft reaction is becoming the most frequent limitation to corneal transplantation. The over all frequency of the allograft reaction is 15%in the author’s experience, varying from about 10% in the most favorable cases to about 35% in the less favorable. Preoperatively vascularized corneas showed a definitely higher incidence of allograft reaction even in the favorable prognostic group. The time of onset of the reaction tended to be earlier and the outcome less favorable in the preoperatively vascularized cases. Regrafted cases also showed a greater frequency of the allograft reaction, almost three times as frequent as in comparable primary grafts. Despite this clear regrafts were obtainable in 64% of all regrafted cases and in 80% of the dystrophy cases.