How is a cornea transplanted?

There is a perpetual shortage of donor corneas in our country due to poor awareness about eye donation. That’s why you need to first register for corneal transplant. The waiting period depends on the voluntary donation of eyes from the community.

A corneal transplantation, like a cataract operation, is usually performed under local anesthesia. General anesthesia is used for children and apprehensive or nervous patients. The operation is completely painless and takes about one hour to perform.

The diseased, cloudy, opaque cornea is removed from the recipient’s (living patient’s) eye using a special blade, and replaced by a new clear cornea (graft) from the donor’s (deceased person’s) eye. The new cornea is then sutured or stitched into place. Usually, 16 sutures are used to hold the graft or transplanted cornea in its position.

Recently, a new technology called Femtosecond Laser (IntraLaseTM) is available to make precise laser aided cuts in the donor and host cornea. Intralase-aided cuts improve wound healing and require less number of sutures leading to faster recovery.