Material and Methods: 410 eyes of the 384 patients who have undergone penetrating keratoplasty (PK) between January 2004 and June 2014 were taken to the study, and all the cases were analized retrospectively. Patients were divided into 4 main groups according to their primary indications in order to investigate the relationship between the primary endications and the need of recurrent keratoplasties, and the survival time of each graft.

Results: RePK was performed to 44 of 410 eyes with PK. The primary indications of these patients were as follows: 18 (40.9%) patients had aphakic/pseudophakic bullous keratopathy, 11 (25%) patients had corneal transperancy loss due to previous keratitis, 9 (20.5%) patients had perforation/descemetocele, 6 (13.5%) patients had corneal dystrophy. Recurrent keratoplasties were performed in 33 (75%) of these patients for once, and in 11 (25%) of them for twice. Graft cornea remained clear in 5 of 11 patients who underwent two recurrent keratoplasties. The third graft corneas remained clear in the patients followed-up. The mean survival time of the first grafts in 11 patients who experienced two graft rejections and underwent rePK for twice was 30.36 months.

Conclusion: The chance of achieving a successful result in the secondary graft transplantation in patients who have experienced graft rejection in their first transplantation increases as the clear lifetime of the first graft increases. Keywords : Penetrating keratoplasty,graft existence, cornea