CORNEA TRANSPLANT Cost at Aster MIMS, Calicut

Most corneal transplants last well beyond 10 years.

You'll probably remain awake during the transplant but you may receive a sedative to help you relax. Your surgeon will inject local anesthetic around the eye to prevent pain and to keep your eye muscles from moving.

Your eye colour will not change after a corneal transplant.

In favorable subjects the rate of success of corneal transplantation may be as high as 90%.

Your eyesight should gradually improve a few weeks after a corneal graft but it could take anywhere from a couple of months up to a year to have stable vision in the eye that receives the donor tissue.

For transplant procedures that use a gas bubble inside the eye to help position the transplanted tissue the surgeon may ask you to lie flat sometimes during the day and sleep flat on your back at night for a few days.

Cornea transplant is the surgery which is used to remove all or part of damaged cornea and then replace it with healthy donor tissue; it is used to improve sight and relieve pain and to treat severe infection or damage.

You may be the candidate for corneal transplant if you are having problem in vision due to keratoconous or other condition which causes cornea to become thinner. You may also need transplant if you have any scar due to previous injury or infection.

Cornea transplant is a very safe procedure but it there is  always some risk of the procedure such as an eye infection and its pressure increases within the eyeball.

The success rate of corneal transplant 91% some of the indications of corneal transplant is keratoconus, bullous keratopathy and failure of previous graft.  Most common causes of graft failure were rejection, infection and glaucoma.

Corneal transplant will usually take less than an hour depending on your condition whether you should be in the hospital or you need overnight stay. If transplantation of outer cornea is needed then new cornea is being held in place with stitches.

You will be given local anaesthesia around your eye region to block pain and prevent eye movement during surgery.

There is various methods of doing corneal transplant

Full Thickness Corneal Transplant- All the layers of your cornea get replaced. The new cornea is get stitched, this procedure is only needed if you have severe corneal injury or bad bulging or scar formation.

Partial Thickness Corneal Transplant- Air is injected to lift off and separate the thin layer outside and the thick middle layer of cornea and then removes and replaces them.

Endothelial Keratoplasty -The surgeon removes the endothelium and they replace them with a donated endothelium and Descemet membrane still attached to the stroma (the cornea's thick middle layer) to help in handling the new tissue without damaging it.

Fuch's dystrophy- This involve removal of the central part of the inner membrane without a transplant, if the surrounding cornea seems healthy enough to provide cells to fill in the removed area.

You must not drive on the day of your cornea transplant. Someone must drive you home after surgery and bring you back for your follow-up visit. If you have good vision in the non-transplant eye you can legally drive 24 hours after surgery.

Medicines will be given for 6 months.

It will take up to a year to recover completely from corneal transplant but most people can go back to normal routine within one to two weeks but they should avoid lifting heavy objects. You should wait for minimum four weeks before lifting any heavy objects.

Most of the cases of corneal transplant last beyond 10 years, patients require ophthalmic checkup for twice in a year to make sure that they eye health are good. The cornea donor tissue is thoroughly inspected for its safety.

Some of the risks of corneal transplant includes infection, bleeding, higher pressure in eyes, clouding of eye lens, swelling of the cornea and detached retina.

Most of the people can see the result of the procedure when there vision is restored but it will take few weeks to improve the vision completely, your eyesight may get little worse before getting better.