| Eye Donation |
| Incase of visual problems affecting the eye, the cornea is the only structure that can be transplanted to restore vision. Diseased corneas can be replaced successfully by transplanting a human donor cornea to the diseased eye. CORNEAL TRANSPLANTATION is one of the most successful organ transplant surgeries. |
| Donor Corneas for transplant come from people who have donated their eyes for use after death. The decision to donate can be made by one during their lifetime, and communicated to their family. The family of the deceased should contact their nearest eye bank, or in case of a hospital death, can just inform the hospital itself of the wish to donate the cornea. The entire eyeball need not be removed, only the upper rim of tissue including the cornea can be removed by the technician, depending on the situation. There is usually no bleeding and the procedure is over in 15minutes.
Screening blood tests for any transmissible diseases like HIV, Hepatitis and Syphilis are performed, after which the cornea itself is screened for any pathology. Even if it cannot be used for a transplant, the eye can be used for valuable Research and Development studies. It is then stored in a nutritive medium temporarily until use. With newer techniques, one cornea can be used for 2 transplant surgeries. So go ahead, and pledge to donate your eyes after death. |
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Cornea Transplant |
| The success rate of a corneal transplantation procedure is high in a majority of cases. Individuals need to be aware that frequent follow-ups and multiple medications will be required after the surgery. The most common cause of failure of a transplanted cornea is from graft rejection. There are various factors that contribute to this, not all of which can be successfully managed. Recovery is different in each individual.
Traditionally, the donor cornea is secured on the patient’s eye with fine thin sutures (stitches) made of nylon; about 12 to 16 sutures are put depending on techniques used. These sutures can be removed after a few months. The corneal transplant procedure can be combined with cataract surgery and lens implantation when it is called “triple procedure”.
With the introduction of the FEMTOSECOND LASERS, we now can offer the added advantage of a bladeless cut even in corneal transplant surgeries. This is called Femtosecond Enabled Keratoplasty (FEK.) The benefit of a Femtosecond cut over a manual cut of the donor and host cornea is that the side cut design can be modified and made as per requirement. The perfect femtosecond cut gives advantage of better fit at the junction of the donor to the host. This quickens the healing, and can additionally help reducing the number of stitches involved in the surgery. |