Keratoconus is a progressive ocular alteration that affects the cornea of the eye, producing a distortion of images and a decrease in vision.
It is one of the most disabling of all diseases affecting the cornea and generally affects young people and adolescents between the ages of 15 and 35.
Until now, treatment for very advanced cases of keratoconus consisted of a complete or almost complete corneal transplant.
However, this treatment carries a number of risks and the results obtained in most cases are not very successful. For this reason, a new surgical technique called Bowman’s Membrane Transplantation has been developed.
Bowman’s Membrane Transplantation
In this new treatment, the ophthalmologist transplants a very thin layer of a donor cornea, known as Bowman’s membrane, onto the cornea of the patient who is affected by advanced keratoconus.
The ophthalmologist carefully removes this layer from the donor cornea and inserts it into a pocket carved into the cornea of the recipient patient. This is a minimally invasive surgery, without any sutures and with a highly favorable postoperative period.
In this way, an improvement in the stability of the cornea and its shape is achieved, without the need to perform a complete corneal transplant with the risks that this entails.
What is Bowman’s Membrane?
Bowman’s Membrane is a thin layer that has a thickness of only 20 microns and is composed exclusively of fibers, so it does not have any type of cells.
For this reason, it provides more resistance to the cornea and is not likely to cause postoperative complications such as rejection and inflammation.
Advantages of Bowman’s Membrane Transplantation
This disease affects 6% of the general population and, generally, people with advanced keratoconus suffer very significant visual loss.
For this reason, undergoing a classic corneal transplant in young people affected by this pathology is a serious problem, because if postoperative complications do not appear, the average survival rate for these transplants is around 20 years.
When postoperative difficulties appear, the survival period decreases.
Thus, the Bowman’s Membrane Transplantation technique is a new technique that has a very important advantage, since it helps to delay the process, avoiding postoperative complications.