Corneal transplantation

Our eyes are two organs quite intelligent, small, localized on the face. They can process 36,000 bits of information every hour and have over 2 million parts that work together.Sometimes even the eyes, specifically cornea decay and need to replace it with transplantation. Among all types of transplantation, corneal transplantation is most commonly done but is most successful.

Cornea
Peripheral layer of the cornea is the eye, clear surface that covers the colored iris and the round pupil of the eye of a person. The cornea has a purpose to focus light entering the eye so to be clear.
To effectively do this, the cornea must be clear and transparent. It is dome-shaped, is a group of proteins and cells with a thickness of a few millimeters. Sometimes it scars the cornea is affected by illness and decay, it distorts light in certain areas of the eye and blindness or blurred vision occurs.
To correct the problem, an ophthalmologist may suggest wearing special glasses or contact lenses, and medications to alleviate pain caused by inflammation. If none of these treatment methods do not work the next step would be surgery corneal transplant.

Candidate for corneal transplantation
If you experience corneal opacification after cataract surgery, if you have an eye scar resulting from an accident or scratch the eye, if the eye is present bacteria or fungi as a result of improper wearing of eye lens contract or if a person rejected previously derived corneal tissue from a donor, you are the right candidate for a corneal transplant.
Basically if you view a person can not be corrected by other non-surgical transplantation could be the next alternative.

Procedure and recovery
Person who supports corneal transplant surgery will be local or general anesthesia, depending on age, overall health and level of involvement of the eye. This procedure can be done outpatient.
There are several types of surgery that can make corneal transplantation. The most commonly practiced penetrating keratoplasty which fully involves removing corneal opacification.
The doctor will cut the center of the diseased cornea and cornea donor will be placed instead, being sutured with stitches that will remain in the eye until the eye is healed. After surgery ophthalmologist will recommend the use of antibiotic drops to ensure that there will be no infection in the operated eye.
Sometimes must be replaced only part of the cornea. Rather than completely eliminate cornea, doctors remove diseased endothelial cells and replacing them with healthy endothelial tissue to reconstruct the cornea. This type of surgical procedure called DSEK endothelial keratoplasty.
When corneal disease affects only the front of the eye is deep anterior lamellar keratoplasty necessary method involves removing only the front part of the ochiliului and replace it with some donated corneal tissue.
After surgery and recovery, patients will not be able sofa. The next day they return to consultation, the doctor who will decide when the wires can be removed. Sometimes they can be removed in a year or can be left permanently in the eye.
Corneal transplants are safe, but complications can occur which may include eye infections, cataracts, glaucoma, trouble shots, inflammation and corneal transplant rejection. Rejection refers to the process in which the immune system mistakenly attacks the donor cornea.
Approximately 20% of patients experiencing this problem. Signs of rejection include pain, loss of vision, redness, light sensitivity. Detected early, problems can be solved.
After recovery order may be weaker than it was before, but it will improve as the eye becomes accustomed to the new cornea. This is normal, so do not be alarmed. The healing process can take from several weeks to several months.

Risks
Corneal transplantation is a very safe procedure. Even though it involves lesser risk of developing serious complications, such as:

  • Eye infections
  • Possibility opacification cristalinuli eye (cataracts)
  • Increased intraocular pressure (glaucoma)
  • Problems with the sutures used during surgery
  • Rejection of corneal transplants
  • Inflammation of the cornea

Signs and symptoms of corneal rejection
In some cases, the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks the cornea can be transplanted. This is called rejection and may require treatment or other corneal transplant. See your doctor if you notice any of the following events:

  • Loss of vision
  • Pain
  • Redness
  • Sensitivity to light.

Rejection occurs in approximately 20% of cases of corneal transplant. Every 10 people that support corneal transplant, two people may experience corneal transplant rejection.

Vision correction after surgery
Vision may initially be weaker than before surgery because the eye must adapt to the new cornea. It may take several months before the order will improve.
After the outer layer of the cornea has healed – a few weeks or months after surgery – the doctor may consider necessary to make some adjustments that could improve vision, such as:

  • Correction of corneal shape irregularities (astigmatism) – Sutures which hunker transplanted cornea can cause inflammation and dimples in the cornea and that the person could see blurry in some parts of the visual field. The doctor will correct some of these irregularities, the issue of gathering stitches and others.
  • Correction of vision problems – refractive errors such as myopia and hyperopia can be corrected by wearing glasses, contact lenses or laser surgery.
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