About this Research Topic
Corneal diseases are one of the top five causes of blindness worldwide and corneal transplantation remains the principal treatment in most cases. Contemporary surgical techniques have improved postoperative management, and the introduction of targeted lamellar keratoplasty has improved transplant outcomes. As a result, trends in corneal grafting are changing, and full thickness transplantation is no longer the preferred technique for most corneal transplantation procedures. The developments in lamellar surgery now make the concept of using multiple parts of the same donor cornea to treat different patients increasingly appealing. Currently, the SARS-CoV-2 is impacting the number of tissues procured, and eye banks are predicting a significant shortage of corneas and it is essential to find alternative approaches.
Eye banks have an important role to play in increasing the pool of cornea, being responsible for retrieval, storage, processing and preparation of the lamellar graft. In the present climate, when the donor-to-recipient ratio is unsustainable, some important questions need addressing. If one patient requires an anterior lamellar keratoplasty, can the endothelium from that donor be used to treat another patient in need of an endothelial keratoplasty? Could we extend the storage of our corneas? Can we create tissues for DMEK from cells of corneas that are no longer suitable for transplantation? Can eye banking procedures be optimized to reduce the number of tissues that are deemed unsuitable after storage? Would additive keratoplasty be a new strategy to use the stroma of otherwise unsuitable donor corneas?
The current pandemic and the shortage of corneal tissues available for transplantation is pushing the boundaries of surgical applications.
Authors should submit articles on themes including, but not limited to the following:
- Cell therapy and eye banking
- Eye bank prepared tissue
- Biobanking
- Risk factors and prognosis of early complications after lamellar surgery
- Posterior lamellar keratoplasty
- Anterior lamellar keratoplasty
- Eye banking post coronavirus outbreak
- Artificial corneas
- Tissue engineering corneal grafts
- Additive keratoplasty
Keywords: Corneal Transplant, Cornea donor, Eye bank, Lamellar keratoplasty
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