For those patients whose vision has deteriorated to a point that even exterior aids like contacts and glasses can no longer provide satisfactory assistance, corneal transplants are a viable but major medical treatment. Oftentimes, these seemingly untreatable vision losses can be blamed on diseased or damaged corneas – the transparent part of your eye covering your iris, pupil, and eye white. This thin but miraculously complex tissue is responsible for refracting light in a way that brings your vision into focus.

Despite its inherent complexity, cornea replacements have actually been medically practiced for over a hundred years, making it one of the longest-performed transplant operations in modern medical science. In the decades since, advancements in ophthalmology has made this complex procedure safe and quite effective considering the dozens of factors that come into play during the body’s acceptance of the new tissue; the procedure is even oftentimes outpatient, allowing recipients to relax at home afterwards.

But despite being outpatient procedures, corneal transplants require more time than many other procedures for your eye to fully recuperate and integrate the new corneal tissue into your existing tissue. We discuss the two major types of corneal transplant and the sort of recovery times you can expect.

For either procedure, you’ll have prepared for weeks, perhaps months, with your ophthalmologist to ensure maximum preparedness for the surgery and the recovery period. The operations themselves are relatively quick, usually an hour or so. While some patients opt for general anesthetic, the surgery can be conducted with only localized anesthetics and a mild sedative, depending on your preferences.

For nearly all recipients, though, the procedure is made worthwhile in the long run through drastically-enhanced vision and optical health.

The DSEK or DMEK Technique

The least invasive method of corneal transplants replaces only the innermost of the five layers of your cornea with donor tissue. Typically, this is where most patients have suffered damage from disease. Happily, recovery times with this method is one to two months, with vision often restored after this period with careful monitoring .

Full Thickness Transplant

This method replaces the entirety of a small, button-sized portion of your cornea with a donor cornea. While the procedure is rapid, full recovery does not often occur until after a year or more has passed.

Corneal Transplant Alternatives

Many patients, especially those considering a full thickness transplant, will want to know if any alternatives are available to them, and oftentimes there are! Even assuming that corrective lenses no longer compensate for damage to your corneas, your ophthalmologist may be able to partially correct your vision depending on where your cornea is damaged with less invasive methods.

If, for instance, the irregularity in your eyes is due to keratoconus, or a cone-like bulge in your corneas, your ophthalmologist might suggest corneal collagen cross-linking, a one-hour procedure that uses non-invasive UV light and special drops to create new collagen fibers to help stiffen your corneas properly.

Is a corneal transplant the right choice for you?

The welcoming staff at Vistar Eye Center specializes in personalized eye treatment, and for a procedure as nuanced as a corneal transplant, that’s just what you’ll want. We welcome you to schedule an appointment at any of our convenient locations in Roanoke or throughout Southwest Virginia, where you’ll get exactly the insight you need about this procedure as well as any alternatives available to you.