A peculiar case of corneal autograft in a patient with bilateral advanced glaucoma

Abstract

The technique of autograft employs the use of a clear corneal graft from an otherwise blind eye that is transplanted to the fellow eye, which has a visual potential in the same patient. A patient with advanced glaucoma in both eyes presented to us with pseudophakic bullous keratopathy with Ahmed glaucoma valve in the right eye, and cataract and patent peripheral iridotomy with no perception of light in the left eye. The autograft and allograft corneas for bilateral penetrating keratoplasty (PK) were obtained from the contralateral eye and a cadaver eye, respectively. Central corneal button was used for PK. One year after the surgery, the graft host junction was well apposed with no vascularization, corneal surface was clear, sutures were intact, and best corrected visual acuity improved in right eye to 1 logMAR. Bilateral simultaneous PK with autograft in one eye and allograft in the other was done to decrease the chances of rejection.