Technical Background
A corneal transplant involves the surgical replacement of a diseased or injured donor cornea with a healthy portion of a donor cornea. The medical term for a corneal transplant is "keratoplasty".
The reason for blindness in injured or diseased cornea is that it interferes with the normal passage of light into the eye. The transplant of clear, healthy donor tissue restores the normal visual pathway. In recent years, corneal transplant surgery has advanced so that in many cases, only that section of the cornea that is diseased or injured is replaced. These procedures are referred to as "lamellar keraroplasty". The LinkoCare bioengineered cornea can be used for "anterior lamellar keratoplasty" (ALK) or "deep anterior lamellar keratoplasty" (DALK). Anterior keratoplasty (ALK) replaces the superficial anterior section of the cornea while DALK replaces the entire stroma, or mid-section of the cornea. ALK and DALK is used to treat corneal conditions such as keratoconus, a disease where the cornea becomes cone-shaped, and corneal scars.
The reason for blindness in injured or diseased cornea is that it interferes with the normal passage of light into the eye. The transplant of clear, healthy donor tissue restores the normal visual pathway. In recent years, corneal transplant surgery has advanced so that in many cases, only that section of the cornea that is diseased or injured is replaced. These procedures are referred to as "lamellar keraroplasty". The LinkoCare bioengineered cornea can be used for "anterior lamellar keratoplasty" (ALK) or "deep anterior lamellar keratoplasty" (DALK). Anterior keratoplasty (ALK) replaces the superficial anterior section of the cornea while DALK replaces the entire stroma, or mid-section of the cornea. ALK and DALK is used to treat corneal conditions such as keratoconus, a disease where the cornea becomes cone-shaped, and corneal scars.
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Other types of corneal transplants treat diseases of the corneal endothelium, the very back layer of cells on the cornea, for diseases like Fuch's endothelial dystrophy. These procedures are referred to as "endokeratoplasty" and include procedures known as Descemet's Stripping Endokeratoplasty (DSEK) or Descemet's Membrane Endokeratoplasty (DMEK).
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