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Descemet membrane endothelial keratoplasty with or without overnight admission

Eye volume 39, pages 1831–1836 (2025)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Objective

To compare visual outcomes and show postoperative complication rates of Descemet Membrane Endothelial Keratoplasty (DMEK) with or without overnight admission.

Methods

Retrospective analysis of DMEK surgeries performed at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital from 2018 to 2023. Data on demographics, surgical details, intraoperative and postoperative complications and admission type were collected. Visual outcomes and complication rates of surgeries with or without overnight admission were evaluated.

Results

344 eyes were included with mean patients’ age of 72.1 ± 9.7 years (range 37.4–96.6 years). After surgery, 61.3% of patients (n = 211) were hospital-admitted for a one-night stay while 38.7% (n = 133) were home-discharged on the same day. Intraoperative complications occurred in 8.7% of patients and postoperative complications in 5.8%, with no difference with or without overnight admission (p = 0.308 and p = 0.412, respectively). There was no difference in the improvement in visual acuity (0.43 ± 0.6 and 0.45 ± 0.6 logMAR; range: −1.82; +2.38 logMAR) between both groups (p = 0.984), and no difference was found in postoperative rebubbling rate between both groups (30.8% in hospital-admitted and 31.6% in home-discharged; p = 0.926). Multivariate logistic regression showed no association between overnight admission and DMEK rebubbling rate (p = 0.555). However, postoperative complications, triple procedure and recipient age were all significant factors increasing DMEK rebubbling requirement (p < 0.05). Home-discharged patients had a risk ratio of 1.03 (95% CI 0.74–1.41; p = 0.926) for rebubbling and 0.68 (95% CI 0.28–1.372; p = 0.412) for postoperative complications compared to their hospital-admitted counterpart.

Conclusions

Visual outcomes and postoperative complications did not show any significant difference in DMEK surgeries with or without overnight admission.

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Data availability

The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ophthalmology, Department of Clinical Sciences and Translational Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy

    Giulia Coco

  2. Department of Corneal Diseases, St. Paul’s Eye Unit, Royal Liverpool University Hospital, Liverpool, United Kingdom

    Giulia Coco, Luca Pagano, Alfredo Borgia, Mahmoud Ahmed, Davide Tucci, Kunal A. Gadhvi, Stephen B. Kaye & Vito Romano

  3. Department of Biomedical and Surgical Sciences, Section of Ophthalmology, 9309 University of Perugia, S. Maria della Misericordia Hospital, Perugia, Italy

    Davide Tucci

  4. Eye Clinic, Department of Medical and Surgical Specialties, Radiological Sciences, and Public Health, University of Brescia, Brescia, Italy

    Vito Romano

  5. ASST Civil Hospital of Brescia, Brescia, Italy

    Vito Romano

Authors
  1. Giulia Coco
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  2. Luca Pagano
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  3. Alfredo Borgia
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  4. Mahmoud Ahmed
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  5. Davide Tucci
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  6. Kunal A. Gadhvi
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  7. Stephen B. Kaye
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  8. Vito Romano
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Contributions

Conceptualization: GC, SBK, VR. Data collection: GC, LP, MA, DT, KAG; Data analysis: GC, AB; Data presentation: GC, AB; Writing - original draft preparation: GC, LP; Writing – review and editing: GC, KAG, SBK, VR; Read and approved the final manuscript: GC, LP, AB, MA, DT, KAG, SBK, VR.

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Correspondence to Giulia Coco.

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Coco, G., Pagano, L., Borgia, A. et al. Descemet membrane endothelial keratoplasty with or without overnight admission. Eye 39, 1831–1836 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41433-025-03754-w

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