Corneal Transplant Breakthrough in UK

[jayuk]

Just thought Id post this here as its very promising news...early stages but still..good!

click here

[Ali Akay]

Jay
Although this is very promising I need to point out that it has no relevance to keratoconus sufferers.I am sorry to put a dampener on it but I thought it wouldnt be fair for some members to get false hopes.

The funny thing is I've heard 2 other corneal surgeons claiming to be the first to perform this procedure, hence not sure who got there first! The main beneficiaries of this technique are people suffering from an inherited condition called Fuch's dystrophy where the cornea becomes cloudy due to failure of the endothelial cells.This deepest layer is replaced through a relatively small incision without inducing high degrees of astigmatism often associated with grafts.

[Per]

This seems interesting to me. If they are able to change these cells in a non KC-cornea, next step is changing them in a blurred graft. We must look at this as a step forward!

[jayuk]

Ali

My understanding was that it was a varied form of DLEK.....or a very similar which could help secondary Endothelial failure in graft patients?...thus not requiring a full re graft.......also reason why they have classed it as a "world first" was due to the manner in which it was performed.......

So may be useful to KC patients after all?

j

[Ali Akay]

Jay
I cant dispute what you're saying as you probably know more about KC than most optoms! As the article appeared in a local paper it contains some errors as you know and I didnt want people to think this was a revolutionary treatment for KC per se. Time will show how successful this procedure will be but I know there are issues like cell loss and my guess is young patients suffering from graft oedema would be more likely to be offered a re-graft for quite some time to come.But who knows it might become a viable option one day especially for grafts with low astigmatism.If the original graft was tilted with high astigmatism etc it must be just as well having a regraft anyway and hope for better result the second time round! I know you're going to say "But,what about rejection risk?"

it's also worth reminding that grafts are generally age matched nowadays and hence long term outlook is much better. It used to be quite possible for a 50 year old patient to have an 80 year old cornea which would start failing,but this is much less of a risk now.

[Andrew MacLean]

Jay

Thanks for bringing this to our attention! I'm not sure that it matters much if this particular procedure is of any practical use for people with advanced KC, the significance is that it heralds a further advance in the understanding and maintenance of the cornea.

It is known that, post graft, KC sufferers can need Cataract surgery. Innovations such as this may just be the basis on which ophthalmologist can learn to extend the life of grafted material.

Keep up the vigilant search for news articles, and every good wish for the New Year.

Andrew