Severe herpetic keratitis. II. The costs associated with penetrating keratoplasty.

We report a study on 100 patients with severe herpetic keratitis. Overall, one in three of the study group required a penetrating keratoplasty (PK). These patients required a mean of 18 days as an inpatient and 15 outpatient visits in the year the PK was performed; these figures fell to 1 inpatient day and 8 outpatient visits in the second year after surgery. The financial cost of such therapy is discussed.