Practice Makes Perfect

Abstract

To report the diagnosis and treatment of a patient who developed epithelial ingrowth after Descemet-stripping automated endothelial keratoplasty (DSAEK). We describe the case of an 80-year-old woman who underwent DSAEK for pseudophakic bullous keratopathy. After surgery, the patient underwent 2 additional rebubbling procedures for recurrent donor lenticule dislocation. She was subsequently found to have an enlarging interface epithelial ingrowth that led to graft failure. After donor lenticule exchange, mechanical scraping, and irrigation-aspiration of residual epithelial cells, there was no evidence of the histologically confirmed epithelial ingrowth during a 2-year follow-up interval. This 1 case report suggests that epithelial ingrowth may occur after DSAEK. This case was successfully treated surgically.