Cornea Screening

Cornea screening
Corneal curvature and thickness is measured using keratometer and pachymeter
The transplantation of donor cornea that has undergone refractive surgery (LASIK, RK, PRK) can lead to both wound separation during surgery and to increased refractive error in the recipient. Therefore, the increasing popularity of refractive surgery has raised concern regarding the decreasing proportion of transplant quality corneas coming in to the eye bank and the serious consequences of transplanting a post- refractive surgery cornea that has escaped detection. Currently, eye banks utilize patient history and microscopic examination to assess the quality of donor corneas and detect previous refractive surgery. Although these methods are capable of screening out many problem corneas, they are subject to human error. Patient history may be unreliable, and well-performed LASIK and PRK may leave minimal debris and scarring and which are particularly difficult to detect. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is capable of performing 3-dimensional imaging of the cornea with micron resolution. It can visualize the corneal layers, detect opacities, and measure surface contours. In our preliminary studies, we have found that OCT can image donor corneal tissue without even removing it from the sterile container and preservation medium