Overview
A corneal transplant, also known as corneal grafting or penetrating keratoplasty, is an effective surgical procedure to restore vision to those blind from corneal disease such as corneal injuries, infections, age-related corneal degenerations or damaged corneas due to injuries.
How is Corneal Transplant performed?
In cases where a cornea is diseased, the surgery involves removing the central 7 to 8mm portion of the damaged or cloudy cornea (usually measures about 12 mm in diameter). A clear and healthy donor cornea is then placed, and sutured in place with very fine microsurgical nylon sutures. This procedure is also known as a Penetrating Keratoplasty (PK).
In cases where the cornea is only partially diseased, only the affected portion (either the front portion or the back portion) is dissected away and replaced by a partial donor cornea tissue. This procedure, also known as Lamellar Keratoplasty (LK), is more advanced and complicated thus more challenging to perform.At EEC, our surgeon is well-equipped with the expertise to perform this difficult procedure. Thus far, it is our preferred procedure as it involves only removing the diseased layers of the cornea while still preserving the healthy layers, thus minimizing the risks of corneal graft rejection, a significant cause for “failure” today in a corneal transplant.
Where does EEC get its cornea from?
EEC uses donor corneas that are of excellent quality procured from local donors from the Singapore Eye Bank, as well as from internationally accredited eye banks from the United States of America and the Philippines for transplants. Usually, patients only have to wait 1-2 weeks to receive a cornea.
Why Choose EEC for Corneal Transplant?
Eagle Eye Centre is one of the few centres that have performed numerous challenging corneal transplant surgeries. Our surgeon also has experience in Osteo-odontal Keratoprosthesis Surgery (OOKP) which is the latest artificial cornea surgery.
Non-Singaporeans can also undergo corneal transplant surgery in Eagle Eye Centre.