Health status and patient satisfaction after corneal graft: Results from the corneal transplant epidemiological study

Purpose. to evaluate effects of corneal transplantation on the health-related quality of life and patients' satisfaction. methods. patients scheduled for elective penetrating or anterior lamellar keratoplasty completed by telephone interview the sf-12 health survey,before and one year after surgery,and a 6-item questionnaire on the satisfaction for graft outcomes. results. the two questionnaires were answered by 1,223 patients. transplantation did not influence the pcs-12 in males (es=-0.01) and had a negative effect in females (es=-0.18). both sexes improved their mcs-12 (es=0.18 and 0.23,resp.). the majority of patients (83.1%) were satisfied by the outcome of the graft. conclusions. this is the first report on the use of the sf-12 and one of the few that assess quality of life in patients after corneal transplantation. we showed that grafting improves patients' health-related quality of life results of patients,influencing mental health (i.e.,psychological attitude,social interaction,and emotions) with minor effects on physical health (limitation,pain,and vitality). © 2012 adriano fasolo et al.