What is Cornea Transplant?
Cornea transplant is more widespread on a global scale than other organ transplants. Thanks to it, many visually impaired and blind people have regained normal vision.
Keratoplasty, or corneal transplant, is the most frequently performed graft worldwide (more than 100,000 transplants each year). It was performed for the first time in 1887 by Arthur Von Hippel. It is also considered to be the oldest tissue transplant that was performed successfully in humans. Keratoplasty has the best long-term survival (nearly 70% survival after 10 years).
In practical terms, it is a matter of replacing the diseased part of the cornea with a healthy tissue, taken from a deceased donor. In Turkey, nearly 600 cornea transplants are performed each year.
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Who is this procedure for?
- People with a sick or damaged cornea
- People suffering from keratoconus, chemical burns of the cornea and corneal stromal dystrophies
Side effects
- Transplant rejection
- Infection
- Glaucoma
Intervention or treatment's duration
- The operation lasts between 1 to 2 hours
Recovery time
- A work stop of 8 to 21 days may be prescribed
- The scarring of the corneal transplant is very slow (more than 5 years)
- Final visual result 6 months to a year
Success rate
- 90%
What Symptoms may Indicate that I Need this Intervention?
If you have a damaged cornea, you may experience symptoms, including:
- Eye pain
- Blurred vision
- Blurred vision.
Your ophthalmologist in Turkey will determine the cause and other possible treatments that can resolve these symptoms. If your cornea cannot be repaired using other methods, your surgeon may recommend a corneal transplant.
What are the types of diagnoses?
Conditions that damage your corneas and affect your ability to see clearly may require a corneal transplant. These conditions include:
- Fuchs dystrophy: a condition in which cells in the inner layer of the cornea die, causing the cornea to swell and thicken, and vision becomes blurred.
- Keratoconus: a condition that causes the cone-shaped cornea instead of a dome
- Infections that cause permanent damage to the cornea.
- Traumatic lesions that penetrate or scars in the cornea.
- Previous eye surgeries that damaged the cornea.
- Bullous keratopathy: a swelling of the cornea similar to a blister that causes eye discomfort, pain and blurred vision.
- Keratitis: an inflammation of the cornea caused by viruses, bacteria or parasites.
Corneal Transplant techniques
These procedures are not done using a laser, but with very specific tools to make extremely precise lamellar cuts (especially a microkeratome). Given the precision required for this type of procedure, it is recommended that you contact an experienced eye surgeon.
There are several types of corneal transplants such as:
Perforating graft: in this case, the entire thickness of the diseased cornea is replaced. The procedure takes about 40 minutes.
Lamellar grafting: only the part of the cornea that is sick is replaced. If the diseased part is located in front of the cornea (for example keratoconus), an anterior lamellar graft is performed. If the endothelium is affected, a so-called posterior lamellar graft is performed. The advantage of this technique is that it negates the risk of endothelial rejection if it is an anterior lamellar graft, since the patient keeps his/her own endothelium. The operation takes about 80 minutes. A corneal graft can also be combined with another procedure, such as cataract extraction.
The most modern endothelial grafting technique is the DMEK (Descemet Membrane Endothelial Keratoplasty) which consists in inserting only a membrane graft of Descemet (pure endothelium, without any part of the corneal stroma) into the eye. This more difficult technique gives better visual results than other older endothelial grafting techniques such as DSAEK (Descemet Stripping Automated Endothelial Keratoplasty) whose graft consisted of the Descemet membrane plus the corneal stroma.
Affordable Cost of cornea Transplant in Turkey & Istanbul
Turquie santé introduces the best cornea transplant surgeons who will be in charge of performing corneal graft surgery that has a success rate ranging between 70% and 90%.
It is crucial to mention that our prices are 50% cheaper than France. Our platform offers a guide to prices and rates for your medical stay, cheap cosmetic surgery prices.
