UK Keratoconus Self-Help and Support Association

Hello everyone

Have a question on recovery from recent surgery if someone could help me out

I had a corneal transplant in my left eye only recently after having keratoconus for 10 years. They carried out partial DALK graft but were unsuccessful with the big bubble technique so mid surgery they changed to another technique where they scrape part away which I believe is called manual lamellar dissection, so were still able to achieve the partial graft. I was happy with this as was told it's stronger than a full graft as the bottom layer of the cornea is left intact.

It's now 2 weeks post surgery and my sight is much much worse than before I had the operation. I have ghosting around objects especially bright things like TV/phone screen and is worse at night. When I close my good eye and just look through my bad eye it's just a blur I can't read a thing from any distance, it's like if I opened my eyes underwater, it's also quite sensitive to light.

I know its only 2 weeks post op but it hasn't even slightly improved over these 2 weeks. Anyone else had the same experience? Am I just being really impatient and Is there a good chance it will improve or should I be seeing signs of improvement already? Just regretting having it done at the minute as it's much worse. Never had to wear contacts or glasses before and hope this isn't the case now.

Any info much appreciated, thanks!

I would have thought 2 weeks is very soon to expect a good result. At this stage, you will only have some initial healing and from what you have said it is likely your eye has experienced some stress during the operation so it will take some time for things to settle down.

When you have a full-thickness graft after the operation you are looking through a completely new cornea so things can clear very quickly. However, with your partial thickness, which may be better in the long term as structurally you have not removed the whole of your cornea, it does mean that the visual area where yours and the donor tissue join needs to heal. There will be some swelling that needs to go down and complete healing to take place.

When is your next review appointment? I was five months on before things were stable enough to assess the visual outcome. So be patient and stick to your drops routine for now.

Graham

Ok thank you for the info, that makes sense. I'm religiously taking my drops to try and achieve the best possible outcome just thought I might see a slight improvement from what vision was like a few days post op but I'll just be patient. Next review is in around 2-3 weeks time so hopefully they'll be able to make sure everything is ok and healing well.

Thanks again
Sean

Let us know how it goes.

Graham

Yep will do!

Hows the eye now? has vision improved?