To identify risk factors for corneal graft rejection and rejection irreversibility.

Retrospective cohort study.

setting: Institutional. patients: A total of 1438 consecutive eyes of 1438 patients who underwent corneal transplantation for optical indication at the Centre Hospitalier National d’Ophtalmologie des XV-XX, Paris, France, between December 1992 and December 2010 were studied. Surgical technique was penetrating keratoplasty (PK) in 1209 cases, anterior lamellar keratoplasty (ALK) in 165 cases, and Descemet stripping with endothelial keratoplasty in 64 cases. main outcome measures: Cumulative incidence of rejection episodes and rejection irreversibility rate.

A total of 299 cases of rejection episodes were identified, of which 145 (48.5%) were irreversible after treatment. In multivariate analysis, the cumulative incidence of rejection episodes was influenced by recipient age (P = .00002), recipient rejection risk (P = .0003), lens status (P = .00003), and surgical group (P = .035). A higher incidence of rejection episodes was observed in young patients (<20 years) and patients aged from 41 to 50, high-risk recipients, aphakic eyes and eyes with anterior chamber intraocular lens, and eyes with PK (compared with eyes with ALK). Rejection episodes were more likely to be irreversible for high-risk recipients (P = .02), for eyes with preoperative hypertony (P = .009), and for eyes with poor visual acuity at presentation (P = .002).

Recipient rejection risk and surgical group are the main risk factors for rejection as they both influence the incidence of rejection and the reversibility rate. Recipient age and lens status are predictive factors for the occurrence of rejection. Preoperative hypertony is a predictive factor for rejection irreversibility.