Last January the first two corneal transplants on pediatric patients at the University Hospital of Ferrara. They were operated on two children less than one year old affected by rare corneal diseases: Sclerocornea and Peters’ anomaly, two congenital malformations of the eye whereby patients are born with an opacity of the cornea that prevents vision. Both diseases can determine irreversible blindness if they are not treated within the first months of life: the only effective therapy to date is the cornea transplanti.e. the replacement of the opaque cornea with a new, healthy cornea from a donor.
The operation, which lasted about an hour, was performed by prof. Massimo Busin, Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Ferraraand involved the team of S. Anna Hospital Ophthalmology directed by prof. Marco Mura. The children were discharged after two days of hospitalization and their post-operative course continues regularly.
“It was about interventions of great complexity – explains Prof. Busin – both performed using the multiples modern corneal surgery techniques. In Italy, very few operations of this type are performed due to the greater technical difficulty of corneal transplantation in pediatric patients. Operating such young children additionally requires one organizational effort further than that necessary for transplantation in adults, both for the need to professional roles with specific training in the sector, both for the need to plan carefully postoperative visual rehabilitation.”
Prof. Busin is one of leading experts in corneal transplantation, with more than 10,000 transplants performed. We owe him thedevising numerous surgical techniques, then adopted all over the world. Among them is the perforating “mushroom” keratoplasty, with the characteristic shape of the blades that are implanted in the patient, which was performed on one of the two children operated on at the Cona hospital.
“At eye surgery – commented Prof. Mura – in the pediatric age requires a multidisciplinary approach which must involve various professional figures including the ophthalmologist, the pediatric anesthetist, the neonatologist and the pediatrician. Fundamental was the creation at the University Hospital of Ferrara of a path of diagnosis and treatment of diseases of the cornea and retina in children.”
“We are extremely fortunate to have met Prof. Busin – says the mother of one of the two children – before him various specialists had told us that the transplant was not possible. The Professor has given us hope again. Thanks to the cornea that has been given to him, our son will have the opportunity to live a normal life.”
In the photo, from left: Marco Mura, Massimo Busin