The perception of light from the surrounding area enters the eye via the cornea. Disorders or conditions affecting the cornea can lead to various refractive errors, such as short short-sightedness, long-sightedness, and astigmatism.
There are many diseases that may be reasons for a cornea transplant (keratoplasty). These include keratoconus, an eye condition where the cornea forms a cone shape and gradually thins, causing worsened vision. Other problems are serious infections, corneal injury, and corneal dystrophy.
The cornea is one of few bodily tissues that does not have any blood vessels, so cornea transplants are inherently different from other organ transplants – the human body accepts a new cornea relatively well. In the majority of cases there is no need for concern that immune responses would lead to rejection of the donor cornea. For transplants we use corneas from our own tissue bank, which are thoroughly examined and of guaranteed quality.
IVIO Clinic is a specialised facility that performs two types of cornea transplants: penetrating keratoplasty, in which the entire thickness of the cornea is transplanted; and the more modern lamellar keratoplasty, in which only a few layers of the cornea are transplanted. Whereas the penetrating cornea transplant technique has not changed much over the past century, lamellar keratoplasty techniques have advanced rapidly, revolutionising the field of corneal transplantation in a number of ways. The lamellar method is performed at only a small number of sites in Slovakia.
The indisputable benefit for clients of our clinic is our independent eye bank facility, IVIO Clinic Eye Bank (ICEB), where we prepare the lamellar grafts needed for this type of procedure. The grafts are screened, prepared, and transplanted all within a single site, representing a high level of safety for clients.
We perform most types of lamellar transplant procedures at our site, including:
- PKP – Penetrating Keratoplasty
- DALK – Deep Anterior Lamellar Keratoplasty
- DMEK – Descemet Membrane Endothelial Keratoplasty
- DSAEK – Descemet Stripping Endothelial Keratoplasty
