K'taka: Country's first artificial Cornea implant

Bangalore, Oct 10: Eye Patients, with multiple graft failures or those with blood vessel growth deep into the cornea, can now heave a sigh of relief, thanks to the new procedure successfully done by doctors at a City Hospital here today.

The novel procedure, being done for the first time in the country, was beneficial to those who had undergone repeated transplant failures, said Narayana Nethralaya Chief Bhujang Shetty.

He said Narayana Nethralaya has joined a rare group of eye hospitals worldwide having successfully conducted an artificial cornea implant. It was the first hospital in the country to have conducted such a procedure. There were only 20 such centres across the world to perform this procedure, he explained adding that the event was most befitting to celebrate the 'World Sight Day' to be observed tomorrow.

Explaining the procedure successfully conducted on two patients Dr Rohit Shetty, who led a team of doctors, said the artificial cornea AlphaCor, an FDA approved product- a biocompatible, flexible, artificial cornea designed to replace scarred or diseased cornea tissue, would be implanted into the cornea of the recipient. In the second step the protective conjunctival flap would be removed after a few weeks to allow light to pass through the central clear zone to restore vision.

He said the product was designed for use in patients in whom donor graft was likely to fail. It was not recommended for those patients with severe dry eye, problems with general anaesthesia, those who live alone or cannot administer their topical medications, smokers or those with a history of herpetic eye disease, he added.

UNI