PURPOSE To report the clinical outcomes of deep anterior lamellar keratoplasty (DALK) when sterile gamma-irradiated acellular corneal tissues (VisionGraft) are used in combination with amniotic membrane transplantation (AMT) for intractable ocular surface diseases. METHODS The medical records of fifteen patients who had DALK with AMT were retrospectively reviewed. Indications for surgery incl...

BACKGROUND Differential expression of chemokine genes were investigated in various types of ocular surface cells. METHODS Primary cultures of human corneal epithelial cells (n = 3), corneal fibroblasts (n = 2), conjunctival epithelial cells (n = 2) and conjunctival fibroblasts (n = 2) were established and incubated with or without interleukin (IL)-4 (30ng/ml) and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-a...

BACKGROUND Keratoplasty is the most effective treatment for corneal blindness, but suboptimal medical conditions and lack of qualified medical personnel and donated cornea often prevent the performance of corneal transplantation in developing countries. Our study aims to develop alternative treatment regimens for congenital corneal diseases of genetic mutation. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS ...

Corneal endothelial cells play a critical role in maintaining corneal transparency and dysfunction of these cells caused by aging, diseases (such as Fuch's dystrophy), injury or surgical trauma, which can lead to corneal edema and blindness. Due to their limited proliferative capacity in vivo, the only treatment method is via transplantation of a cadaver donor cornea. However, there is a severe...

Congenital corneal anaesthesia (CCA) is an uncommon condition difficult to diagnose. We report the case of a 20-month-old boy who presented with unilateral congenital corneal anaesthesia. The child was referred with a persistent corneal epithelial defect, unresponsive to symptomatic local treatment for over 10 months. Intensive topical treatment and strict corneal protection led to quick cornea...

Background & Aims: This study was carried out to determine the leading indications for corneal transplantation in Kerman province. Methods: Medical records of 186 patients underwent corneal transplantation during 3 years (2004-2006) in Shafa Medical Center were evaluated retrospectively. The initial diagnosis and causes of corneal grafting were recorded. Infectious keratitis (Bacterial, Fungal,...

Segmentation of anatomical structures in corneal images is crucial for the diagnosis and study of anterior segment diseases. However, manual segmentation is a time-consuming and subjective process. This paper presents an automatic approach for segmenting corneal layer boundaries in Spectral Domain Optical Coherence Tomography images using graph theory and dynamic programming. Our approach is ro...

Vascular endothelial growth factor inhibitor is an emerging therapeutic modality for various ocular diseases with neovascularization (NV). However, for corneal NV, controversy remains regarding whether bevacizumab or ranibizumab is superior. A 32-year-old female diagnosed with herpetic keratoconjunctivitis with refractory corneal NV despite two previous subconjunctival and intrastromal bevacizu...

Soontornvipar t K. , N. Tunt ivanich, H. Kecová, P. Rau‰er :Conjunctival Pedicle Graft in Dogs and Cats: A Retrospective Study of 88 Cases. Acta Vet. Brno 2003, 72: 63-69. Seventy-eight dogs and ten cats with corneal lesions, including deep corneal stromal ulcers (n = 32), keratomalacia and recurrent erosions (n = 25), descemetocoeles (n = 18), staphylomas and perforating corneal defects (n = 5...

Neurotropic keratopathy is one of the major refractory corneal disorders, which was first recognized in 1824. This category of diseases is caused by damage to the trigeminal nerve and the consequent loss of corneal sensation. It leads to various types of corneal disorder, including superficial keratopathy, persistent epithelial defects and corneal ulcers. In the present article, we review the p...