Analysis of the impact of donor tissue characteristics on the outcome of Descemet Membrane Endothelial Keratoplasty (DMEK)

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The most common form of transplantation in medicine istransplantation of the cornea. This field has been revolutionized in thelast couple of years by introducing a new lamellar cornealtransplantation technique, called DMEK (Descemet MembraneEndothelial Keratoplasty). Hereby, only the inner layer of the cornea,endothelium and its basal membrane, is being selectivelytransplanted in eyes with corneal diseases that only affect thisparticular inner layer. Since this surgical approach is still beingoptimized, large studies are needed to analyze efficacy and safety ofthis technique. Not much is know so far on the impact of donor tissuecharacteristics on DMEK outcome. Therefore, the aim of this project isto extend the largest prospective German DMEK database by adding donor tissue and preparation characteristics and to analyze the role ofthese donor tissue characteristics on the outcome of DMEK surgery.The results of this project will help to further improve this alreadysuccessful corneal transplantation technique.