Bilateral cloudy cornea: is the usual suspect congenital hereditary endothelial dystrophy or stromal dystrophy?

We provide the diagnosis, treatment and follow-up period of a patient with cloudy cornea in both eyes from birth. A 4-year-old girl presented with blurring in both eyes. Penetrating keratoplasty (PK) was performed with the preliminary diagnosis of congenital hereditary endothelial dystrophy in June 2012. According to the pathology report for extracted host tissue, the Descemet's membrane (DM) and endothelium were healthy and diagnosis was reported to be congenital hereditary stromal dystrophy. Deep anterior lamellar keratoplasty was performed on the left eye. The DM was transparent at follow-up. Cornea transplantation is the only choice to provide visual rehabilitation in children with congenital cloudy cornea. However, it is known that the prognosis of traditional PK in the paediatric age group is not good. Therefore, when using alternative keratoplasty (deep anterior lamellar keratoplasty, Descemet's stripping automated endothelial keratoplasty) options, pathological examination of the host tissue should be made. 2016 BMJ Publishing Group Ltd.