Collaborative Corneal Transplantation Studies (CCTS)

Launched by NATIONAL EYE INSTITUTE (NEI) · Sep 23, 1999

Keywords

ClinConnect Summary

Approximately 20 percent of corneal transplant patients, about 6,000 per year, face donor tissue rejection at rates of up to 60 percent because of corneal vascularization or prior graft rejection. Histocompatibility antigen matching and/or crossmatching may have offered these patients an improved chance for successful outcome.

The Collaborative Corneal Transplantation Studies Group conducted two controlled, double-masked studies addressing distinct scientific questions about donor-recipient histocompatibility matching. The Crossmatch Study was a randomized study assessing the effectiveness...

Gender

ALL

Eligibility criteria

• • Males and females age 10 years or older with two to four quadrants of corneal stroma vascularization or a history of allograft rejection in the eye considered for surgery were eligible for both studies in the CCTS.
• • Patients must have been willing to participate in 3 years of followup. No one was eligible for the CCTS who had a condition that would greatly increase the risk of nonrejection graft failure, such as xerophthalmia or severe exposure keratopathy. Also excluded were patients with systemic diseases or with medication usage that might alter their immune response.