A serious adverse surgical event: Management of suspected HSV-1 keratitis in a donor cornea.

PurposeTo describe the management of a serious adverse event in a patient undergoing penetrating keratoplasty (PK).Case reportA 68-year-old man underwent PK for an aphakic bullous keratopathy following previous complicated cataract surgery. He had no past history of herpetic disease. Storage of the corneoscleral disc in the transport bottle precluded microscopic examination. After placement of the trephined donor cornea on the open eye of the recipient, a large dendritiform geographic ulcer was noted on the donor cornea. A replacement cornea was used after changing potentially contaminated instruments. Intravenous antiviral treatment was commenced intraoperatively to reduce the risk of infection to the central nervous system. Postoperatively, oral and topical antiviral treatment was commenced and 6 months following surgery the patient developed a geographic corneal ulcer at the graft host interface.ConclusionContainers to transport corneoscleral discs should enable microscopic examination by the surgeon prior to use. High dose systemic antivirals may reduce the risk of herpetic disease involving the posterior segment of the eye and neuroretina in the aphakic eye and spread to the central nervous system

Possible Role of Descemet-Stroma Interface for Descemet's Membrane Detachment after Penetrating Keratoplasty.

PurposeTo report two cases of spontaneous Descemet's membrane detachment (DMD) and dehiscence following penetrating keratoplasty (PK).Case reportsSpontaneous DMD or Descemet's membrane (DM) dehiscence following PK is a rare occurrence. Here, we describe two cases of such an occurrence following PK arising from the graft-host interface. A possible causative relation between DMD/dehiscence and DM-stromal interface attachment is suggested.ConclusionDMD and dehiscence after PK can be explained by the peripheral thinning of DM and possible changes to the recently characterized anchoring zone of interwoven collagen fibers and proteoglycans at the Descemet-stroma interface

Intraoperative management of macroperforations of Descemet's membrane in deep anterior lamellar keratoplasty.

BackgroundTo describe a surgical approach for the completion of pre-descemetic deep anterior lamellar keratoplasty (pdDALK) in the presence of a macroperforation of Descemet's membrane (DM).MethodsUsing case notes, we recorded the details of the intra- and perioperative course of patients who underwent successful pdDALK in the presence of macroperforation. A literature search of pdDALK techniques available to the corneal surgeon in a similar scenario was undertaken.ResultsIn two very different scenarios with intra- or preoperative perforation of DM, a centripetal layered lamellar dissection was performed and allowed completion of pdDALK with a residual recipient central stromal thickness of 36 and 115 µm and good visual outcome.ConclusionDespite very different scenarios, a centripetal layered lamellar dissection offers an approach for the completion of pdDALK in the presence of a macroperforation

Functional Staging of Corneal Neovascularization Using Fluorescein and Indocyanine Green Angiography

Court of Appeals No. 89-0340 CA Argument Priority No. 14(b) District Court No. C-86-8833 Judge: John A. Rokic

Insights from a Murine Aortic Transplantation Model

Transplant vasculopathy (TV) represents a major obstacle to long-term graft survival and correlates with severity of ischemia reperfusion injury (IRI). Donor administration of the nitric oxide synthases (NOS) co-factor tetrahydrobiopterin has been shown to prevent IRI. Herein, we analysed whether tetrahydrobiopterin is also involved in TV development. Using a fully allogeneic mismatched (BALB/c to C57BL/6) murine aortic transplantation model grafts subjected to long cold ischemia time developed severe TV with intimal hyperplasia (α-smooth muscle actin positive cells in the neointima) and endothelial activation (increased P-selectin expression). Donor pretreatment with tetrahydrobiopterin significantly minimised these changes resulting in only marginal TV development. Severe TV observed in the non-treated group was associated with increased protein oxidation and increased occurrence of endothelial NOS monomers in the aortic grafts already during graft procurement. Tetrahydrobiopterin supplementation of the donor prevented all these early oxidative changes in the graft. Non-treated allogeneic grafts without cold ischemia time and syngeneic grafts did not develop any TV. We identified early protein oxidation and impaired endothelial NOS homodimer formation as plausible mechanistic explanation for the crucial role of IRI in triggering TV in transplanted aortic grafts. Therefore, targeting endothelial NOS in the donor represents a promising strategy to minimise TV