Saudi Gazette Cornea transplant is on the rise in the Kingdom and King Khaled Eye Specialist Hospital (KKESH) in Riyadh is witnessing a large number of registrations for such patients everyday. Dr. Abdul-Elah Al-Towerki, General Executive Director of KKESH revealed that the number of patients waiting for a cornea transplant has increased and continues to grow each year. He said that the number of patients on the cornea transplant waiting list in the last four years has reached 4,200 with 347 registered last month. Although the hospital is well-equipped with highly specialized ophthalmologists and eye surgeons who are at par with the American and European standards, the growing demand has led them to recruit 10 more new eye specialists recently. Al-Towerki said that since 1983 till last month 20,150 cornea transplants have been successfully performed but more efforts are required to keep up with the demand, as people coming from remote regions find it difficult traveling to Riyadh for the operation and then for repeated follow up visits. The hospital is also among the very few reputed ones which perform this surgical procedure. A cornea transplant replaces a part of or the entire cornea with corneal tissue from a deceased donor. The cornea is responsible for a good part of your eye's focusing power. A cornea transplant can restore vision, reduce pain and improve the appearance of a damaged or diseased cornea. The types of conditions that may be treated and alleviated by a cornea transplant include cornea that bulges outward or thinning of the cornea or scarring, clouding, or swelling of the cornea as a result of injury or infection or corneal ulcers caused by severe eye infection or complications caused by previous eye surgery. Cornea transplant is a relatively safe procedure, but still it carries risks of complications such as: eye infection, problems with the stitches in the eye, increase pressure in the eyeball (glaucoma), clouding of the eye lens (cataracts), rejection of the donor cornea, and swelling of the cornea. “Although the procedure is quite simple and can be performed in the outpatient clinic, a great deal of precision on the part of the surgeon is essential. In addition, cornea transplant patients require six follow up visits to their eye doctor each year after the operation for three years. I cannot stress enough how important it is for these patients to go to their doctor's appointments in a timely and regular manner to avoid any possible complications. The patient may be able to discontinue the medications after about a year and a half of the transplant,” said Al-Towerki. He further added that over 97 percent of all cornea donor are brought from the US. The cornea must be removed from the deceased donor by no later than twelve hours after the time of death and immediately preserved and transported to the hospital where the transplantation procedure will be performed. __
