Cornea is the transparent front surface of the eye. Normally, when looking straight on at the eye, you look right through the cornea and see the coloured iris and black pupil of the eye. Corneal transplantation or corneal grafting or keratoplasty involves removal of diseased or damaged cornea and its replacement by donated corneal tissue. Deceased individuals with no known corneal diseases can donate their corneas within 6-8 hours of their demise.
Types of corneal transplants:
PK (Penetrating Keratoplasty)
This is the traditional procedure being done over many years, which involves removal of the entire thickness of the host cornea and replacement with entire thickness of donor cornea. The donor cornea is stitched to the host tissue.
DSEK – Descemet’s Stripping Endothelial Keratoplasty
Recently, with advancements in surgical techniques and instrumentation, newer surgeries called lamellar transplantations are being done with very good results. In these procedures, only the diseased portion (only a part of the cornea) is replaced with healthy donor tissue, leaving the remainder of the cornea undisturbed. When the front portion of the cornea is replaced, it is called as DALK (Deep Anterior Lamellar Keratoplasty) and when the back portion of the cornea is replaced, it is called DSEK (Descemet’s Stripping Endothelial Keratoplasty).
