Descemet Stripping may replace the need of Cornea Transplant
Researchers have said that a new, minimally invasive, procedure without potential side effects can replace the need for a corneal transplant for treatment of eye diseases.
Scientists led by Kathryn Colby from University of Chicago in the US showed that removing a few square millimetres of a single layer of cells on the inside of the cornea allowed rejuvenation of the surrounding tissue, without the need for a corneal transplant.
This simple procedure restored clear vision to three out of four patients suffering from Fuchs endothelial dystrophy (FED), researchers said.
FED is the most common reason people receive a cornea transplant, 14,000 were performed in 2015 because of the condition and it is effective. The downside for many patients is the required lifetime use of steroid eye drops to prevent rejection of the new cornea, and the drops often cause glaucoma, cataracts and infections.
“It’s too soon to call this a cure. We performed the first operation just over two years ago. But when it works, it’s a wonderful thing,” Dr. Kathryn Colby, chair of the ophthalmology and visual science department at the University of Chicago, said in apress release. “It’s quick, inexpensive and it spares patients from having someone else’s cells in their eyes, which requires local immunosuppression.”
For the study, published in the journal Cornea, Colby performed Descemet stripping during the last two years on 11 patients between the age of 51 and 91, two of whom had the procedure done on both eyes.
Six months after surgery, 10 treated eyes had clear corneas and eight had 20/20 vision or better. The other three eyes did not respond to surgery and received cornea transplants.
Among the eyes treated, four regained clear vision within a month of surgery, four had improved vision within three months and two responded to the treatment in more than three months.
Future research will focus on genetic clues to Fuchs dystrophy, which is a polygenic disease, to help determine the patients who will best respond to Descemet stripping.
“Although Descemet stripping is a relatively simple procedure, its potential is revolutionary,” Colby said.
