UK Keratoconus Self-Help and Support Association

Lou - being an eternal optimist, I'm assuming that the 60% in first eyes reflects failures early on ie shortly after eye 2, which is much less likely to happen now. I don't know about you, but all my rejection episodes (in both eyes) were early on, and all reversed. Haven't had one now for 15yrs so I'm hoping my grafts will outlive me!
Anne

hey thanks Anne, see what you mean. My rejection episodes in eye 2 were very early on also. That feels a bit better. I don't know about anyone else but I never used to experience such anxiety when I was younger, it's as I've got older and hitting those milestones like 40 I've become so much more nervous about the long term. I guess it's totting up the years and thinking will it survive as long as me? Most of the time I shelve it because you have to, but I go through periods of really acute anxiety, having nightmares about waking up with little sight. I guess even the nightmares are part & parcel of coping.

Hi there. Gareth posted that the speaker at the West Midlands meeting (Mr Savant)said that the average life of a graft was 15 years. Several people queried this on these message boards, so I raised it with him, as we work in the same clinic on Monday mornings. (Our corneal consultant usually quotes 25 years as the average life of a graft.) Anyway, Mr Savant said that it was hard to quote an accurate "average" as the range is so wide. A few people are unlucky enough to have a rejection quite quickly, but others go on for years and years.

I have a patient whose graft was done 40 years ago, and it's still going fine!

Happy New Year to everyone!

Can any Optom tell me if you can see the health of the endothelium with the slit lamp, and if graft failure is slow over months or rapid [occuring overnight] and how that affects sight ie no sight/partial sight/reduced sight?
Sorry I don't mean to be negative or pessimistic but I deal with this stuff better if I have as much detail as possible, also, so I don't imagine the wrong thing because of a lack of knowledge. Hope that makes sense

Thanks Christine,

As was pointed out earlier at the last confrence Moorfileds suggested they were the only ones having done research upto 25 years post op. Then as Anne pointed out surgical techniques have improved so the graft survival is going to increase further.

I feel graft life span is like how long is a piece of string as there are so many factors over the time you have the graft that dictates its survival so the goal posts do not exactly stand still.

Are you aware of any 10 or 15 plus year post graft research currently underway in the UK?

I was told at the hospital once that as they lose track of people as they move house or stop going for check ups they don't have a clear idea of how grafts perform long term.

I think this is where you can cope with glasses so you get discharged from hospital care to the highstreet optom.

It is perhaps where a more specilised contact lens is needed post graft patients stay in the system longer.

This is perhaps where even a survey of our members post graft would still perhaps give a distorted view.

GarethB wrote:I think this is where you can cope with glasses so you get discharged from hospital care to the highstreet optom.

I only use glasses but up until this year the hospital were adament that they saw me once a year (one doctor told me it would be for the rest of my life). My optom insists that I see her once a year - timed so either she or the hospital are seeing me every six months. This year the hospital asked me if I wanted to be discharged but I thought it best I stayed 'in the system' so made my usual autumn appointment.