Corneal Transplant

The Cornea is the front, outermost layer of the eye. Just as a window lets light into a room, the cornea lets light into the eye. It also focuses the light passing through it to make images.
Corneal problems can happen to anyone at any age. Sometimes due to disease, injury or infection the cornea becomes cloudy or warped.A damaged cornea, like a frosted or misshapen windowpane, distorts light as it enters the eye. This not only causes distortion in vision, it may also cause pain.
When there is on other remedy, doctors advise a corneal transplant. In this procedure an ophthalmologist surgically replaces the diseased cornea with a healthy one to restore clear vision.

What is Corneal transplant?

A transplant is the replacement of damaged or diseased tissues or organs with healthytissues or organs. In a corneal transplant, the cloudy or warped cornea is replaced with a healthy cornea. If the new cornea heals without problems, there may be tremendous improvement in vision.

The healthy corneal tissue used for transplantation is supplied by an Eye Bank. Eye banks workround the clock to collect, evaluate, and store donated corneas. The corneas are collected from human donors within hours of death. Stringent tests are done to ensure the safety of the person receiving the cornea. The Eye Bank verifies the donor’s medical history and cause of death, and performs blood tests to ensure that the deceased person did not have any contagious disease, such as AIDSor hepatitis.Since the cornea was one of the first parts of the body to be transplanted, corneal transplants remain one of the most common, and most successful, of all transplants.

How does the Eye Work?
Anything you see is an image that enters your eye in the form of light. The different parts of your eye collect this light and send a message to your brain, enabling you to see. For perfect vision all the parts of your eye need to work properly.

• The cornea is the clear, outer layer of the eye.
• The pupil is an opening that lets light enter the eye.
• The iris, the colored paart of the eye, makes the pupil larger or smaller.
• The lens bends to focus light onto the retina.
• The retina receives light that has been focused by the cornea and lens.
• A clear (vitreous) gel fills the inside of the eye, giving it shape.