dalk surgery

[Cobbler]

I am having DALK surgery on my right eye soon. If anyone has had this surgery please let me know your experiences especially the visual outcome and how long it took to heal.

[Andrew MacLean]

Cobbler

Welcome to the forum. As you know, DALK is a partial thickness graft. They peel the top layers of your own cornea off your eye, leaving the rear layer of cells (called the endothelium) in place. They they take the endothelium from a donated cornea and graft the stroma and epithelium onto your eye. The advantage of this kind of surgery is that there is very little danger of a rejection.

I had a PK in my right eye, and a DALK in my left. The DALK did take longer to heal, but I was using steroid drops for a shorter time after surgery with my left eye.

I now have vision good enough to drive; I wear a contact lens on my DALK eye, and I have specs for my PK eye (that sounds odd, but my glasses have a lens with optical value in the right pane and just plain glass in the left).

I guess I had useful sight after a month or so but my vision did not stabilize well enough for it to be worth while using a lens for about 18 months.

Every good wish

Andrew

[Cobbler]

Thank you for reply. Which procedure do you reckon is better dalk or pk? For me they are planning to do dalk and use pk only if dalk fails.

[Andrew MacLean]

DALK is overwhelmingly the preferred option. I needed a PK in my right eye because my endorhelium was so badly scarred that it would have interfered with my vision.

Also of they start a DALK procedure they can change to PK in mid flow. If they commit to PK at the outset there is no way of going back and starting again.

All the best.

Andrew

[Cobbler]

Thanks, Andrew - great to read that the doctor has made the best choice for me as my eyes are in good health apart from health.

[Cobbler]

Instead of health I meant to say that my eyes are good except for the cornea.

[Andrew MacLean]