Multicenter Study of 6-Month Clinical Outcomes After Descemet Membrane Endothelial Keratoplasty

PURPOSE:To report the 6-month clinical outcomes of a large cohort of Descemet membrane endothelial keratoplasty (DMEK) eyes operated by 55 starting or experienced surgeons. METHODS:This is a retrospective, multicenter, interventional, cohort study with a total of 2485 eyes. Best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA), endothelial cell density (ECD) decrease, and intra- and post-operative complications were evaluated. Three groups based on case order were comparedgroup I (cases 1–24), group II (cases 25–99), and group III (cases ≥100). Forty-nine percent of the surgeons were in their learning curve ( 0.05). Intraoperative complications were reported for 9.4% of eyes, whereas graft detachment was the main postoperative complication (27.4%), with lower intra- and post-operative complication rates in group III than group I (P < 0.05). Rebubbling was performed in 20.1% of eyes; 13.8% required secondary keratoplasty within 6 months. CONCLUSIONS:DMEK is applicable for surgeons in various settings with good clinical outcomes. After an arbitrary learning curve (