Abstract
Abstract: :
Purpose: Design a surgical technique to isolate and preserve corneal endothelium in organ-culture medium. Methods: Nineteen human corneoscleral buttons were obtained from an eye bank. Nearly the full thickness corneal stroma was removed using Hanna Devices. At that time, the endothelium was put back in its breeding ground, hold by its peripheral corneoscleral rim. Its evaluation was performed before and after corneal stroma was removed, at day 0, day 2 and day 10. Endothelium viability was assessed using optical and electronic microscopy (OM& EM). Results: Our procedure was successful to isolate corneal endothelium from its full thickness stroma with reduce adverse event. Average loss of endothelium cells was about 262 cells/mm2 between J0 and J3. The endothelium layer without the full thickness of the corneal stroma appeared more folded. However, using OM and EM, no signs of intracellular endothelial damage were observed. Conclusions: This procedure seems to be a useful technique to isolate and preserve corneal endothelium. Our study is a beginning of a corneal endothelium storage carried by its corneoscleral rim. Before using this technique in human for posterior lamellar keratoplasty, we would like to assess more precisely residual stromal thickness we leave on.
Keywords: cornea: endothelium • cornea: storage • transplantation