Baseline patient characteristics of endothelial keratoplasty procedures: preloaded Descemet membrane endothelial keratoplasty (pDMEK) vs non-preloaded Descemet membrane endothelial keratoplasty (n-pDMEK)
| Preloaded DMEK | Non-preloaded DMEK | P value | |
| Eyes (n) | 38 | 30 | 0.143 |
| Age, mean±SD (range), years | 67.66±9.55 (49–90) | 68.30±9.24 (47–82) | 0.950 |
| Sex, number (%) of patients | 0.861 | ||
| Male | 16 (42.11) | 12 (40.00) | |
| Female | 22 (57.89) | 18 (60.00) | |
| Clinical stage FECD, mean±SD (range) | 2.87±0.74 (2–4) | 2.80±0.71 (2–4) | 0.907 |
| FECD stage 1, number (%) of eyes | 0 (0.00) | 0 (0.00) | |
| FECD stage 2, number (%) of eyes | 12 (31.58) | 11 (36.67) | |
| FECD stage 3, number (%) of eyes | 19 (50.00) | 14 (46.67) | |
| FECD stage 4, number (%) of eyes | 7 (18.42) | 5 (16.67) | |
| Type of surgery, number (%) of eyes | 0.543 | ||
| DMEK | 18 (47.37) | 12 (40.00) | |
| Triple DMEK | 20 (52.63) | 18 (60.00) | |
| CDVA, mean±SD, logMAR | |||
| Preoperative | 0.45±0.25 | 0.46±0.27 | 0.807 |
| 1 month | 0.27±0.18 | 0.27±0.17 | 0.975 |
| 3 months | 0.16±0.15 | 0.19±0.16 | 0.415 |
| 6 months | 0.14±0.13 | 0.16±0.14 | 0.554 |
| 12 months | 0.12±0.11 | 0.13±0.13 | 0.827 |
| Surgery time (hours), mean±SD (range), med | |||
| Single DMEK | 00:35±00:12 (00:17–01:05), 00:34 | 00:55±00:12 (00:42–01:28), 00:50 | <0.001 |
| Triple DMEK | 00:40±00:10 (00:28–01:00), 00:40 | 01:03±00:13 (00:48–01:36), 01:00 | <0.001 |
| Single+Triple DMEK | 00:38±00:11 (00:17–01:05), 00:37 | 01:00±00:13 (00:42–01:36), 00:58 | <0.001 |
Chi-squared test (χ2 test) or Mann-Whitney U, p value <0.05 significance level.
CDVA, corrected distance visual acuity; FECD, Fuchs endothelial corneal dystrophy; LogMAR, logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution; Med, median.