Safety Profile of Intraoperative Corneal Debridement in Descemet Membrane Endothelial Keratoplasty (DMEK)—A Retrospective Comparative Study

In bivariate analyses, intraoperative corneal debridement was associated with worse postoperative outcomes, including reduced visual acuity, endothelial cell density, and graft survival. However, these differences likely reflect the more severe cases in the debridement group. When adjusting for potential confounders, multifactorial Cox regression analysis showed that corneal debridement did not have a significant impact on graft survival. This suggests that while debridement may be associated with poorer outcomes in unadjusted analyses, it does not appear to adversely affect graft survival when accounting for other factors. Corneal debridement may therefore be a safe and viable option in DMEK, though further research is needed to confirm its impact on long-term outcomes.