BACKGROUND Despite all efforts towards the improvement of the eye bank system, the shortage of corneal tissue for transplant is still an important issue in Brazil. The Hospital São Paulo Eye Bank aims to provide high-quality ocular tissues for surgery starting with rigorous selection of donors. PURPOSE To investigate the characteristics of cornea donors to the Hospital São Paulo Eye Bank duri...

AIM Our study was conducted to evaluate whether higher temperature leads to increased - or wider - scroll widths of the Descemet's membrane endothelial keratoplasty (DMEK) donor graft. PURPOSE To investigate the effects of temperature and fluid media on the DMEK donor graft scroll widths. MATERIALS AND METHODS This research work was a laboratory investigation. Baseline cell count was taken ...

The goal of this in vitro study was to test the feasibility of using femtosecond (fsec) laser pulses to fistulize the human trabecular meshwork (TM), and to determine the minimum exposure time and energy dosage needed to create an ablation channel. Corneo-scleral rims were obtained from tissue used for penetrating keratoplasty. Four millimeter tissue strips hydrated in Optisol-GS were used to c...

392 A 17‐year‐old female with a several‐year history of bilateral keratoconus was visited about 1 year prior to deep anterior lamellar keratoplasty (DALK) in her right eye (OD). History‐wise, she was intolerant to glasses and contact lenses and her past medical history and family history were unremarkable. On ocular examination, she had visual acuity (VA) of 2 meters counting fingers (CF) in ea...

Laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis (LASIK) has become a wellaccepted and effective procedure for the treatment of a wide range of refractive errors. Microbial keratitis is a potential complication of LASIK with causative organisms, including gram-positive bacteria, atypical mycobacteria, fungi, and viral pathogens. Direct ocular trauma and exposure keratopathy in severely ill patients in int...

Purpose To explore the optimal lenticule storage conditions that maintain lenticule integrity and clarity. Methods A total of 99 lenticules obtained from myopic patients undergoing small incision lenticule extraction (SMILE) were divided into four combinations for short-term storage conditions: PBS, Dulbecco's Modified Eagle's Medium (DMEM), Optisol GS, or anhydrous glycerol. Two thirds of th...

PURPOSE Human corneal endothelium, a neural crest-derived tissue, has a very limited regenerative capacity and may depend on trophic factors for its survival throughout life, as well as after injury and during storage before transplantation. The purpose of this study was to determine whether vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP), a 28-amino acid neurotrophic factor present in human aqueous humor,...

PURPOSE To determine the relative expression of cell cycle-association proteins in human corneal and limbal epithelium and corneal endothelium in situ, to correlate staining patterns of cell cycle-associated proteins with known proliferative status of corneal and limbal epithelial cells, and to determine the relative proliferative status of corneal endothelial cells in situ by comparing their s...

AIM Different trephination methods may lead to differences in degree of tissue damage and endothelial cell loss, which both influence the outcome of penetrating keratoplasty. Light, transmission, and scanning electron microscopy were used to compare the ultrastructural appearance of the cut edges and the endothelial cell loss in 26 human corneal donor buttons obtained by trephination with the s...