AIM: To analyse complications in patients managed with deep anterior lamellar keratoplasty (DALK) for diseases of anterior corneal stroma. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This was a retrospective analysis of all the patients who underwent DALK in a tertiary care center in South India from 2010 to 2021. A total of 484 eyes in 378 patients were included in the study. Patients who underwent DALK for advanced keratoconus, keratoconus with Bowman's membrane scar, healed hydrops, macular corneal opacity, macular corneal dystrophy, granular corneal dystrophy, spheroidal degeneration, pellucid marginal degeneration, post-LASIK ectasia, descemetocele, postcollagen cross-linking aborted melt and dense scar, and postradial keratotomy were included in the study. The patients were followed up for 17.6±9.4 months(1–10years). RESULTS: Complications noted in the surgery were intraoperatively Descemet's membrane perforation in 32 eyes (6.6%), postoperatively secondary glaucoma in 16 eyes (3.31%), cataract in 7 eyes (1.45%), suture-related complications in 5 eyes (1.03%), graft rejection in 3 eyes (0.61%), traumatic dehiscence in 2 eyes (0.41%), filamentary keratitis in 2 eyes (0.41%), interface infiltrate in 1 eye (0.21%), and recurrence of disease in 4 eyes (8.77%) out of 57 eyes with corneal dystrophy. CONCLUSION: DALK as an alternative to penetrating keratoplasty for anterior corneal stromal diseases has proven to be better time and again. It has become an automatic choice for diseases of anterior cornea requiring keratoplasty. Complications occurring at any stage of surgery can be identified and managed effectively resulting in optimal outcome. This article compiles complications post DALK.

We report a rare case of keratoconus (KC) progressing to advanced stage in a pregnant female with previously stable KC managed with collagen cross-linking 7 years back. A 26-year-old female first visited during the second month of her pregnancy with stable KC managed with collagen cross-linking 7 years back. She was found to have corneal melt with haze and was advised to undergo keratoplasty surgery. However, the patient was not willing for that, and the surgery was deferred. After 4 months, the patient came with similar complaints. On examination, the corneal melt was advanced and the patient was suggested surgery again. However, she again deferred the surgery. At the eighth month of pregnancy, the patient came with advanced melt with well-epithelized descemetocele, which was then successfully operated on an emergency basis with full-thickness penetrating keratoplasty.

Spontaneous and sequential corneal perforation is rare in pellucid marginal degeneration (PMD) in the seventh decade of life. Hence, the importance of repeated follow-up, clinical examination along with serial corneal topography even in the seventh and eighth decades of life is of utmost importance in PMD. We report a case of spontaneous corneal perforation in a 64-year-old male patient with PMD having normal corneal thickness in the right eye which was managed with primary suturing and compression sutures. The other eye was absolutely normal with normal topographic findings. Over a period of four years of follow-up, the patient developed progressive diminution of vision in both eyes and was diagnosed with cataract. Temporal phacoemulsification with toric IOL implantation was done in both eyes, following which the left eye developed spontaneous perforation after a period of two months which was also managed with primary suturing and compression sutures.