Narayana Nethralaya doctors in Bengaluru transplant outer cornea to 2 patents and inner cornea to 2 patients
BENGALURU:
The late Power star Puneeth Rajkumar had pledged both his eyes, and after they were harvested, doctors of Narayana Nethralaya successfully used each eye to treat two patients by separating the superior and deeper layers of the cornea. The superior layer was transplanted to two patients who had superficial corneal disease and only the deeper layer was transplanted to patients with endothelial or deep corneal layer disease. The procedures performed were two different techniques of lamellar keratoplasty
• Deep Anterior Lamellar Keratoplasty (DALK): The outer or superficial part of the cornea was transplanted for two young patients with corneal dystrophy and keratoconus. Both these conditions affect predominantly the superficial layer of the cornea, while the deeper part of the eye is normal. Hence, only the superior part was replaced and the endothelium of the patient was retained. This greatly reduces the chance of graft rejection.
• Descemet’s Stripping Endothelial Keratoplasty (DSEK): The inner or deeper layer of the cornea was transplanted for two patients with corneal endothelial decompensation affecting the innermost layer of the cornea. In this procedure, only the endothelium is replaced and usually done with a small incision and a few sutures. This avoids a full-thickness cornea transplant, is more comfortable for the patient and allows faster recovery.
Further use of actor’s eyes
Besides this, the limbal rim (the white part of the eye near the circumference of the cornea), which was not used for the transplants, has been sent to the hospital’s laboratory to generate ‘induced pluripotent stem cells’ for potential use in patients with limbal stem cell deficiency, chemical injuries, acid burns and other serious disorders.
Doctors involved
The surgeries were performed by Dr Yathish Shivanna, Dr Sharon D’Souza and Dr Harsha Nagaraj, under the leadership of Dr Rohit Shetty and supported by the rest of the cornea team, Dr Gairik Kundu and Mr Veeresh.
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