Category: Cornea Damage

Cornea Transplant Surgery — An Overview by Natural Eye Care

cornea transplantCornea transplant surgery involves removing a damaged or diseased cornea, and replacing it with tissue from a deceased donor. All or part of the cornea may be replaced. In the United States, eye surgeons do approximately 33,000 corneal transplants (keratoplasty) per year. The surgery might be recommended if vision is seriously impaired by scarring from an injury, or eye diseases such as Fuchs’ Dystrophy, Lattice Dystrophy, or Keratoconus.

What is the Cornea’s Job?

The cornea is transparent tissue at the front of the eye. Its job is to protect the eye from damage. This tissue also absorbs oxygen and nutrients. Light enters through the cornea Continue reading “Cornea Transplant Surgery — An Overview by Natural Eye Care”

Corneal Flash Burn Temporarily Blinds CNN Reporter Anderson Cooper

anderson cooper flash blindedAnderson Cooper, veteran reporter for the news channel CNN, was temporarily blinded by a flash corneal burn from excessive sun exposure while researching a news story in Portugal. He was not wearing sunglasses. The reporter’s eyesight returned after 36 hours.

The host of Anderson Cooper 360 and Anderson Live, Anderson Cooper spent time on a boat on a sunny, windy day without sunglasses. That night, he awoke with eye irritation and burning eye pain. “It [felt] like my eyes [were] on fire, my eye balls.” Then he discovered he was blinded. Cooper sought medical attention.

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Most School Children’s Eye Injuries Are Sports Related

basketball requires eye protectionDid you know that the leading cause of blindness in children is eye inquires, and that most eye injuries in schoolchildren are sports-related? According to The National Eye Institute, the damage from eye injuries can be temporary or, or they can lead to permanent loss of vision.

School children eye injury statistics:

  • Most eye injuries in school-aged children are from sports.
  • Baseball players under age 15 get the most sports-related eye injuries.
  • Basketball records the most eye injuries in young adults aged 15 through 24.

Eye protection is key to preventing sports-related eye injuries. The non-profit organization Prevent Blindness America has named September as Sports Eye Safety Awareness Month.

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Stem Cells Help Cornea Burns | BioSynthetic Corneas

Italian researchers reported in 2010 that patients who had become blind or had other very severe damage to their corneas due to being splashed with chemicals received a reprieve.  They received transplants of their stem cells and regained their vision.  It was considered a huge success in the field of stem-cell therapy.

The researchers accomplished their results by removing a tiny amount of stem cell tissue from a patient’s eye that was not damaged, and used them to grow new corneal tissue.  This tissue was then replace surgically.  A further benefit was that because the stem cells had come from the patient’s own eyes, they did not need to take drugs to block the bodies natural tendency to reject foreign materials.

Published: New England Journal of Medicine, 6/24/2010

BioSynthetic Corneas

Researchers have implanted corneas made of genetically engineered collagen in patients for the first time.  Potentially, the millions of people on the waiting list for corneas from human donors could experience restored sight with these implants made from human genes and specialized yeast cells.

Ten patients in Sweden had the genetically engineered corneas inserted two years ago; the vision of six of the ten has improved. None of the patients experienced graft rejection or required long-term immune suppression, both of which can be factors for patients who receive corneas from human donors.

Study authors are optimistic about the development of biosynthetic corneas, but say that the technology is not fully mature.  Right now, the lab-made material is very fragile making it appropriate for patients with surface corneal damage but not those with damage to the innermost layers of the cornea.

Source: This study was published in Science Translational Medicine, Aug. 25, 2010; vol 2.