Corneal transplants entail replacing a diseased or scarred cornea with a new one. Damaged corneas can result in a person having cloudy or blurry vision. When this happens, light is unable to penetrate the eye in order to reach the retina, which is light-sensitive. This can result in permanent vision impairment or even blindness. Corneal transplants are one way to deal with this problem, although there are also alternative options.
Phytotherapeutic Keratectomy
Phytotherapeutic keratectomy (abbreviated as PTK) is an innovative technological advance in eye care for taking care of problems such as corneal scars, corneal dystrophies and various different corneal infections. With this procedure, doctors vaporize microscopically slender layers of problematic corneal tissue and chip away at the irregularities that result from many corneal scars and dystrophies. This enables fresh new tissue to grow on the surface, which is now smooth.
PTK Benefits
There are a lot of benefits over phytotherapeutic keratectomy over corneal transplants. Firstly, recovering from PTK takes only a few days, whereas corneal transplants involve months and months of recovery time, which can get extremely frustrating to people. Also, the return of vision is generally very rapid with PTK, and the success rate is up to 85 percent.
Corneal Transplant Disadvantages
The reason that many people consider PTK over corneal transplants is that there are some problems with corneal transplants. Some possible complications include rejection of the new cornea, which involves warning signals like decreased vision, redness of the eye, pain and sensitivity to light. If a person experiences any of those symptoms for over six hours, she should immediately seek medical attention from their opthalmologist.
Intrastromal Corneal Ring Segments
Intrastromal corneal ring segments are another alternative to corneal transplants. With this treatment, implants are inserted into the stroma in order to shape the cornea into a more natural, normal-looking shape. The implants, called "Intacs," are not guaranteed to work properly, but they can be very safely and easily removed and afterward, the cornea returns back to normal.
Contact Lenses
For certain mild corneal issues, contact lenses are helpful for improving the vision and corneal transplants are not required. Contact lenses enhance and improve the vision greatly by filling up the space between the inner surface of the lens and the irregular cornea surface with tear fluid. Contact lenses, however, are usually only effective for mild cases and if the situation worsens, some sort of further treatment is required.
Tags: corneal transplants, corneal scars, corneal transplants, over corneal, over corneal transplants