Surgery: cornea transplant and cataract treatment, the news for doctors on Doctor’s Life

Rome, April 26 (beraking latest news Salute) – All the most important innovations in the field of cornea transplantation and cataract treatment will be the focus of two new refresher courses for doctors available soon in the continuing education in medicine (Ecm) offer on the Sky 440 channel ‘Doctor’s Life’ published by beraking latest news Salute.

“Surely Covid has led to a reduction in non-urgent outpatient hospital services, but now that the infections will decrease thanks to vaccinations we are organizing for the resumption of interventions. A cataract surgery is true that it is not urgent but if the vision progressively decreases it cannot be postponed indefinitely. Now we have to dispose of the waiting lists. ” This was stated by beraking latest news Salute Francesco Aiello, specialist in corneal diseases, cataracts and refractive surgery at the Tor Vergata Polyclinic in Rome, who will take care of the two courses: ‘Only endothelium: cornea transplantation is no longer a problem’ and ‘ cataract: an opportunity to take off your glasses’. “They are a great opportunity for doctors to understand the many innovations that have come in recent years,” he adds.

“The indications for corneal transplantation are keratoconus, a degenerative corneal disease, and Fuchs’ endothelial corneal dystrophy. Ten-fifteen years ago for an alteration of 10 microns the cornea was removed and a new one was implanted with up to 16 stitches and a long course of a year that involved the risk of rejection and infections. Plus a suboptimal vision and a strong astigmatism. Then – remembers Aiello – there has been an evolution and we surgeons as scribes are went to make incisions using the ‘Dsaek’ technique, which involves the implantation of tissue thick from 120 to 80 microns and which includes the stroma and endothelium. It was a transplant revolution because it involves 3 sutures and vision is very recovered well”.

“Today there is a new technique, ‘Dmek’, which I learned in the UK where 10 microns of tissue are removed and another 10 microns are put back in. So only the diseased part is replaced. It is more difficult since technical point of view and the tissue is obtained from the posterior part of the cornea of ​​a donor and composed of an endothelium and a Descemet membrane, but the risk of rejection decreases to less than 1%, after two weeks we return to see how first. During the course I will talk about these steps and clinical cases “, emphasizes the surgeon.

“Cataract surgery is the most frequently performed in the world because it follows the normal evolution of the age of vision which after 60-65 years can decrease precisely due to the decay of a protein inside the ‘lens’ of the eye that becomes opaque and yellowish – warns the ophthalmologist – If until 10-15 years ago to restore sight it was necessary to remove the lens – he explains – now the ‘lenses’ have changed and you can intervene with a single operation on the cataract eliminating the astigmatism and distance glasses thanks to multifocal lenses “.

The specialist also notes the great importance of “corneal donations and eye banks”. Italy “is the second country in the world for fabric withdrawals after the US”, underlines Aiello. “It is therefore important to raise awareness on organ donation – he concludes – especially in our field, because the advantages of donating horns is that it can also be taken ‘post mortem'”.