Delayed Corneal Epithelial Wound Healing After Penetrating Keratoplaty in Individual With Lattice Corneal Dytrophy

Purpoe To invetigate whether corneal epithelial cell of individual with lattice corneal dytrophy (LCD) poe an intrinic defect. Deign Retropective cae-control tudy. Method The medical chart of nine individual with LCD and thoe of 14 patient with keratoconu and 11 patient with corneal leukoma (control), all of whom underwent penetrating keratoplaty (PKP) in one eye at Yamaguchi Univerity Hopital between February 1998 and November 2001, were examined for the time for epithelial reurfacing after urgery. Reult The time required for reurfacing of the corneal epithelium after PKP wa ignificantly greater in LCD patient (8.56 ± 4.95 day, mean ± D) than in patient with either keratoconu (1.71 ± 0.91 day, P = .006) or corneal leukoma (3.00 ± 1.95 day, P = .03). Concluion Corneal epithelial wound healing wa delayed in LCD patient after PKP, uggeting that the keratoepithelin gene mutation reponible for thi condition affect corneal epithelial cell.