The advances of corneal preparation – what is to come?

Abstract

Significant advances have been made over the last decade in the field of corneal transplantation techniques, which have given rise to new challenges for eye banks. As the new developments in corneal transplantation surgeries allow selective replacement of the diseased corneal layer and the group of patients that can be successfully treated expanded, the demand for available corneal tissue is increasing steadily. Thus, eye banks are challenged to develop more efficient, validated and standardized corneal lamellar graft preparation (split corneal grafts) and preservation methods. Furthermore, precut and preloaded lamellar corneal grafts that are customized to patient’s needs and easier to transplant are developed. Such developments are not only strengthening the cooperation among eye banks, collaborating surgeons and patients, but also increase the need to interact in a constructive way with different national and international regulatory bodies, in order to update and/or establish legal, safety and quality standards for future corneal tissue transplantation.

Keywords:

• corneal lamellar graft preparation
• corneal transplantation
• eye banks
• precut corneal grafts
• preloaded corneal grafts

Financial & competing interests disclosure

Z Lužnik is the recipient of a Boehringer-Ingelheim travel grant. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.