Corrective eye treatment discovery
A team led by Zhou Xingtao from the Shanghai Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat Hospital has made a breakthrough in corrective eye treatment.
After eight years of clinical practice and research, Zhou discovered he could improve eyesight problems by using the corneal tissue lens of an eye, which was previously removed and discarded after femtosecond laser myopia surgery. Now the corneal tissue lens is used to cure patients with keratoconus and corneal dystrophy.
Zhou published his findings in the Journal of Refractive Surgery, a leading international Journal of Refractive Surgery.
Keratoconus and corneal dystrophy are serious eye diseases commonly found in the 16 to 20 year-old age group. Keratoconus leads to visual disturbances that can lead to blindness, while corneal dystrophy is a hereditary corneal disease. Both of them need corneal transplantation instead of nutritional supplements.
Zhou’s team found that a myopic lens is smooth and unbroken and can be recycled for keratoplasty.
Since 2010, scientists have conducted thousands of experiments where they have implanted a lens from one eye into the cornea of another eye. After the tests, using autogenous lens transplantation on animals, proved a success. Scientists were confident the process could be repeated on humans.
Dr Li Meiyan, a team member, implanted a hyperopia lens into the corneal interlayer of a patient with keratoconus in 2015. The results were astonishing. Myopia decreased from 1350 degrees to 325 degrees after surgery to become the first successful case of keratoconus treated with fresh far-sighted lens transplantation around the world.
Li said that the small lens procedure opens up a new way for treating keratoconus and corneal dystrophy and recycling the “waste” lens is expected to help more people who suffer from corneal disease. But, while the discovery gives hope to those with eye disease, it is not all good news. There is a serious shortage of corneal materials for clinical use in China.
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