Cornea transplant

From ArticleWorld


Cornea transplant is a surgical procedure that involves replacing a malfunctioning (damaged or deceased) cornea with corneal tissue taken from a healthy donor.

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Indications

Indications for a cornea transplant are quite various, but the most common are:

  • Reconstructive, aiming to preserve a degrading cornea.
  • Therapeutic, aiming to remove corneal tissue that is degrading and is not responding treatment
  • Optical, which aims to improve eye vision by replacing damaged (generally opaque or degrading) host tissue. Such operation commonly follows pseudophakic bullous keratopathy.

Cornea transplant does have some associated risks, so a pre-operative examination is needed in order to inform the patient and diagnose the condition.

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Procedure

The procedure begins with a short physical exam in the operation room. The patient is placed under anesthesia. The doctors ensure that the eyes are kept open, usually using a metal ring, and lubricant is applied so that the eye does not dry.

A trephine is then placed over the cornea, and the surgeon cuts the host cornea partially. After the trephine is removed, the surgeon cuts a circular graft from the donated cornea and removes the host cornea completely. The donated cornea is put into place and fastened to the eye.

The anterior chamber is then reformed by injecting a sterile solution. A dye is placed on the wound, and the wound is tested for water-tightness.

Antibiotic eyedrops are put into the eye to prevent infection, and the eye is patched.

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Risks

There are some risks associated with this type of transplant. The main risk is that of infection. Since the cornea has no blood vessels, wounds take longer to heal, so infection is more likely to occur.

Graft failure may also occur, even after great periods of time.

Of course, as for any other transplant, the possibility of the body rejecting the transplant does exist. There is also a minor risk of blood loss, but the typical quantity of lost blood is very small since the cornea itself doesn't have any blood vessels.

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