SOCIODEMOGRAPHIC AND CLINICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF PATIENTS UNDERGOING CORNEAL TRANSPLANTATION IN A HOSPITAL OF CEARÁ

Abstract

To describe the sociodemographic and clinical characterization of patients undergoing corneal transplantation at a hospital in northern Ceará. This is a documentary study, with a quantitative approach, carried out at the Medical and Statistical Archive Service (SAME) of a hospital in northern Ceará, on 231 medical reports of patients undergoing corneal transplants between 2014 and 2018. This research was approved by a research ethics committee in 2018, by number 3,095,410. Results showed that 59.30% of the participants were elderly women, married (46.32%), coming from cities surrounding Sobral, Ceará (74.89%). The most prevalent underlying disease was bullous keratopathy (32.03%). Transplantation was performed on the right eye (51.52%), through penetrating keratoplasty (88.74%), elective surgery (65.80%), with optical purpose (66.66%), without cataract extraction (64 , 50%). Most patients had previous surgery on the operated eye (46.32%). They remained in the hospital for two days (99.56%) and progressed to hospital discharge (100%). The year with the highest number of corneal transplants in the analyzed period was 2016 (32.46%). Therefore, this study contributes to improving care for patients undergoing corneal transplantation, as well as proposing to health professionals more knowledge about the topic, aiming at implementing specialized care in this process, so that they make a satisfactory final result.