Abstract
Purpose: :
To describe a new harvesting technique to obtain a corneal graft for endothelial keratoplasty.
Methods: :
The donor cornea is placed in an artificial anterior chamber and its apex is marked with a pen. After pachymetry at the 8-9 mm corneal diameter, the femtolaser (IntraLase™) suction ring is docked to the applanation cone. Ring tunneling is performed with the following laser settings: outer diameter 9.0 mm; inner diameter 7.7 mm; depth 450-500 µm; ring energy 170 mJ. A custom-designed hook (outer diameter 8.3 mm; inner diameter 6.8 mm; a small hole near the tip, and an arch length of 320º) which has been threaded with a 6/0 nylon suture is then passed through the tunnel. Corneal delamination is achieved by applying traction to the suture. The delamination is enlarged towards the periphery with a spatula.Once the cornea was punched, the anterior interface was studied under SEM, to analize the quality of the interface.
Results: :
We have studied the characteristics of the buttons in 12 eyes from 12 patients. In all cases, a homogeneous thin graft was obtained, without perforation or loss of the lamellar plane.
Conclusions: :
With this technique, we can reliably obtain a graft for endothelial keratoplasty, with predictable thickness and shape characteristics.
Keywords: transplantation • cornea: endothelium • cornea: clinical science