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First in India: Hiranandani Hospital, Vashi, performs corneal transplant along with nerve grafting to save 60-year-old’s vision.
A team comprising Dr Harshvardhan Ghorpade, Cornea, Cataract and Refractive Surgeon; Dr Sunil Moreker, Orbit and Oculoplastic Specialist and Dr Vinod Vij, Plastic and Cosmetic Surgeon at Hiranandani Hospital, Vashi, a Fortis Network Hospital, performed a corneal transplant followed by grafting of a sensory nerve on a 60 year old women to help save her vision. The procedure, which has only been used previously at select hospitals across the world, has been performed for the ?rst time in India.
The patient had undergone a corneal transplant else where but continued suffering from total opaci?cation of the cornea. She had also contracted Herpes Simplex Virus. The virus spreads across the skin forming a thin moist lining around body parts such as the nose, mouth, throat and genitals causing Keratitis. As the disease af?icted the patient’s eyes, it resulted in loss of corneal sensations and the patient was progressing towards total loss of vision.
Dr Sunil Moreker said, “We planned the nerve grafting along with her second corneal transplant since there was a high risk of failure of the transplanted cornea due to her condition. It was equally important to treat her loss of corneal sensations else she would have lost her vision completely even after the corneal transplant. We are happy that the result has been positive and she has about 70%improvement in her vision within 6-8 weeks of surgery.” The Sural Nerve, taken out from her foot, was connected to her cornea and other sensory nerves of her forehead, he added.
Dr Harshvardhan Ghorpade, said, “This procedure is a landmark in providing hope and remedy to other patients who lose their eyesight due to diseases such as herpes, acoustic neuroma (which leads to corneal sensation loss and ultimately to corneal opacity) and trauma which results in cutting off of nerve supply to the cornea.”
