Corneal transplantation or keratoplasty has developed rapidly in the past 10 years. Penetrating keratoplasty, a procedure consisting of full-thickness replacement of the cornea, has been the dominant procedure for more than half a century, and successfully caters to most causes of corneal blindness. The adoption by specialist surgeons of newer forms of lamellar transplantation surgery, which se...

PURPOSE To compare biomechanical effect, riboflavin penetration and distribution in transepithelial corneal collagen cross-linking with iontophoresis (I-CXL), with standard cross linking (S-CXL) and current transepithelial protocol (TE-CXL). MATERIALS AND METHODS The study was divided into two different sections, considering, respectively, rabbit and human cadaver corneas. In both sections co...

The aim of this study was to detect a spectrum of cytokeratins (CK) present in the adult human cornea, limbus and perilimbal conjunctiva. Cryosections from seven corneo-scleral discs were fixed, and indirect immunofluorescent staining was performed using antibodies directed against CK1-CK10 and CK13-CK20. The percentage of positive cells was calculated in the epithelium of the cornea, limbus an...

PURPOSE To investigate corneal abnormalities in heterozygous Pax6(+/Sey-Neu) (Pax6(+/-), small eye) mice and compare them with aniridia-related keratopathy in PAX6(+/-) patients. METHODS Fetal and postnatal corneal histopathology, adult corneal thickness, and the distribution of K12-immunostained cells were compared in wild-type and Pax6(+/-) mice. RESULTS Prenatally, the corneal epithelium...

Corneal buttons were obtained from four young adults with advanced keratoconus following perforating keratoplasty. The corneal buttons were incubated in organ culture media containing 3H-proline. Autoradiographs of corneal sections showed that the incorporation of the radioisotope was significantly higher in all layers of the kerotoconic corneas than that found in the normal controls, indicatin...

OVERVIEW The cornea is a transparent organ with no blood vessels. It covers the iris, pupil, and anterior chamber of the eye. With a refractive power of about +45.00 diopters, the cornea's primary function is the refraction of light rays. Corneal focusing accounts for approximately 70% of the eye's optical power, while the remainder is provided by the lens. When distortions, irregularities, and...

CASE STUDY A 44 year-old male patient suffering from painless bouts of blurred vision and with no visible ophthalmological repercussions initially. After one of these clinical episodes we managed to visualise fingerprint images in the anterior pole, as well as corneal, pachymetric and topographical changes, which in turn produce the symptomatic refractive changes. DISCUSSION Fingerprint kerat...

The aim of this clinical study was to examine corneas extracted from the patients during penetrating keratoplasty for the presence of immunoglobulins and inflammatory cells that can be warning for the graft failure. Individual clinical diagnoses were correlated to the presence of the inflammatory signs in corneal tissue. The signs of inflammation in corneal layers were detected especially in gr...

PURPOSE To evaluate the long-term side effects of mitomycin C (MMC) assisted photorefractive keratectomy (PRK) on corneal keratocytes of highly myopic eyes. METHODS Twenty-eight patients with bilateral myopia from -7.00 to -14.25 diopters (D) underwent PRK on both eyes, one eye of each patient received topical application of 0.02% MMC for 2 minutes immediately after the PRK procedure. Corneal...

In vivo confocal microscopy (IVCM) of the cornea is becoming an indispensable tool in the cellular study of corneal physiology and disease. This technique offers non-invasive imaging of the living cornea with images comparable to that of ex vivo histology. The ability to provide high-resolution images of all layers in the living cornea has resulted in new discoveries of corneal pathology at the...