For good vision, a person must have a clear and healthy cornea. If it is scarred, swollen, or damaged, light is not focused into the eye and the vision becomes blurry. A person with an opaque cornea cannot see, and this condition is known as corneal blindness. This could be due to corneal disease, injury, or infection where the cornea of the eye becomes opaque. Corneal disease is a major cause of blindness in India. Of the 10 million blind people in India, over 2 million Indians are affected by corneal blindness – 60% of them are below the age of 12. “If the patient’s cornea cannot be healed or repaired, the ophthalmologist may recommend a corneal transplant procedure to restore vision. It is a surgical procedure whereby the damaged cornea is replaced by a healthy cornea from a deceased donor. It is one of the most common and safest transplant procedure and unlike other organ transplants such as liver and kidney, doesn’t require tissue matching,” says Dr Mugundhan Rajarajan, Cornea Consultant, GMR Varalakshmi Campus, L V Prasad Eye Institute, Visakhapatnam.
Patients with the following conditions need corneal transplant surgery:
- Corneal scar (white spot in the cornea) caused by infection or injury
- Corneal infection and not responding to medication
- Damaged cornea due to complications caused by previous eye surgery
- Born with corneal opacity (by birth)
- Outward bulging of cornea into a cone shape called keratoconus
- Genetic and hereditary eye conditions
Types of corneal transplant surgeries: The cornea is made of layers of cells and these layers work together to provide clear vision. There are different types of corneal transplant procedures where either the entire cornea is replaced (full thickness) or some layers of the damaged cornea are replaced (partial thickness). Based on the eye problem, the ophthalmologist in consultation with the patient decides on the type of corneal transplant that should be performed.
Success rate: Corneal transplant is a relatively safe procedure, and its success rate depends on the eye problem and the procedure performed. The average success rate is around 79% at 1 year follow up. Depending on the type of transplant you had and how your eye heals, it can take a year or more to fully recover from the surgery and for the vision to restore.
Some people may need more than one corneal transplant. The first transplant could be rejected by the body, or other problems might occur. However, a repeat transplant has a higher rate of rejection than the first one.
For how long the replaced cornea last: Most corneal transplants are successful with good visual acuity with glasses and will work without complications for at least 10 years.
L V Prasad Eye Institute’s GMRV campus in Visakhapatnam has a state-of-the-art advanced cornea facility managed by a team of experienced doctors specializing in all kinds of corneal transplant procedures.