Edwar Lukman, Budiman Dicky, Sitompul Ratna, Susiyanti Made, Nora Rina La Distia, Aziza Yulia, Tuasikal Ramadhiana Maktazula, Badruddin Gabriella Hafidha
Department of Ophthalmology, Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Indonesia, Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital, Jakarta 10430, Indonesia.
World J Transplant. 2025 Dec 18;15(4):106380. doi: 10.5500/wjt.v15.i4.106380.
Corneal ulcers are a major cause of visual impairment in developing countries. In Indonesia, severe infective ulcers often require keratoplasty (KP) to preserve ocular integrity and improve outcomes.
To determine demographic, clinical and microbiological characteristics, complications, and KP outcomes in patients with moderate to severe infective corneal ulcers.
A retrospective review was conducted on patients with moderate to severe infective corneal ulcers who underwent KP between January 1, 2018 and December 31, 2020, with a minimum follow-up period of 3 weeks at the Ocular Infection and Immunology clinic of a tertiary referral hospital in Jakarta. Data were extracted from medical records.
A total of 99 eyes from 99 patients with a mean age of 41.7 ± 16.2 years were included. Eight-nine eyes of corneal cases were located at the central cornea with > 6 mm lesion size (forty-one eyes). The culture positivity rate was 33%, primarily composed of Eyeball integrity was maintained in all patients Mean uncorrected visual acuity (VA) before KP was 2.50 and improved to 2.04 after 3 months of follow-up. Twenty patients with a cornea that was kept transparent achieved a VA of 0.40. Complications after KP appeared in 60 eyes, while secondary glaucoma was the most common complication (28 eyes), followed by graft failure (24 eyes) and graft rejection (14 eyes).
Corneal ulcers are a common problem in Indonesia following eye trauma. Therapeutic and tectonic KP can preserve the integrity of the eyeball in moderate to severe cases, although complications are common.
