The cornea is a clear tissue layer covering the surface of the eyeball, like the crystal of a watch. A cloudy or opaque cornea resulting from disease, scar, infection, swelling or chemical burn may lead to the decision to perform a corneal transplant to restore functional vision.
A graft replaces central corneal tissue, which is damaged due to disease and eye injury, with healthy corneal tissue from a local eye bank. When your cornea isn’t healthy, it scatters or distorts the light entering your eye. This creates glare. It also creates blurred vision. A cornea transplant may be required to restore your useful vision.
Corneal eye disease is now the fourth most common cause of blindness after cataracts, glaucoma and age-related macular degeneration affecting over 10 million people worldwide.
During penetrating keratoplasty, we remove a circular button-shaped, full-thickness specimen from the diseased or injured cornea with either a trephine (surgical cutting instrument) or a femtosecond laser.
Next, the “button” from the donor tissue is matching positioned and sutured in place. Sutures (stitches) are allowed to remain for one year or even longer afterwards.
It is done to remove the corneal stroma down to Descemet’s membrane. This procedure is done to treat corneal disease where endothelium is still functioning normally. The technique provides benefits when compared to a penetrating keratoplasty (PKP) surgery, namely a “closed-system” operation and reduced risk of immune rejection post-operatively.
It is where only the back layer of the cornea (endothelium) is transplanted in a corneal transplant procedure.
Endothelial keratoplasty replaces only the innermost layer of the cornea (endothelium) and does not damage the healthy tissue above.
The doctor makes a small cut and puts a donor tissue disc with good endothelial cells on the back of your cornea when you get donor corneal tissue. An air bubble is inserted to aid in positioning the new endothelial layer. The small cut seals itself and usually does not need stitches.
Endothelial keratoplasty is better than full-thickness keratoplasty. These benefits include quicker vision recovery, reduced surgical duration, limited removal of corneal tissue resulting in less eye structure impact and injury risk, absence of suture complications, and lower chances of astigmatism post-operation.
