A comparison of the wound integrity produced by various suture patterns in penetrating keratoplasty: a cadaver eye model.

We tested the watertightness of wound closure in penetrating keratoplasty as a function of suture pattern by performing a 7.5-mm penetrating keratoplasty on 12 human cadaver eyes using a variety of suture patterns. We then tested wound integrity by hydrostatically raising the intraocular pressure. In this cadaver eye model, we demonstrated that running sutures produced better wound closure than interrupted sutures using the same number of bites. A 16-bite running or a combined running-interrupted pattern produced more than ample watertightness in penetrating keratoplasty wound closure.