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Cornea Transplant
April 4, 2008 |
Gill Daggett and Helen Martin are two patients with Fuchs Dystrophy. It’s a
disease that caused them to begin to lose their vision one day at a time. “You
weren’t sure what you were seeing you were always walking closer and trying to
feel and make sure because it also affects your depth perception and I was like
stumbling sometimes because I didn’t see,” says Helen. Dr. Mark Gorovoy is a
surgeon and board certified ophthalmologist. He has helped develop the eye
opening answer for patients like Gill and Helen. “This is for patients who have
corneal swelling or edema and there are a couple main diseases that are relevant
to this.” Dr. Gorovoy has been a main contributor in developing a transplant
that replaces the inside layer of the cornea. It’s an outpatient procedure that
is helping hundreds see again. “The cornea is about as thick as your nail and it
has different anatomical layers and so as they said the old fashioned way is you
cut it out and you put a new one in and you had stitches that were there for
years,” says Dr. Gorovoy. With the new transplant, most of Dr. Gorovoy’s
patients say they have very little pain and they’re able to see again within a
matter of hours. Helen says, “I feel like it’s a miracle.” And Gill says it was
an easy decision for him to go ahead with the transplant. “To me it’s a no
brainer. It’s not a difficult operation. (01:56:45) Certainly Dr. Gorovoy was
the pioneer.” Another patient even described it as one of the most emotional
moments of his life. When his vision began to return after the surgery he said,
“I cried and it makes me cry when I talk about it but he gave me my sight back.
What can I say?” If you’ve experienced deteriorating vision or complications
after cataract surgery, ask your ophthalmologist if a cornea transplant may be
right for you. |
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