This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Endothelial keratoplasty boosts cornea transplants, Colorado eye bank reports
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
DENVER — A record number of people in Colorado received corneal transplants last year, despite a 10% decrease in the number of eye donors, according to a press release from the Rocky Mountain Lions Eye Bank. In 2005, 471 transplants were performed in the state; in 2006, the number rose to 707, according to the release.
Officials with the eye bank attributed the increase in part to a rise in the use of endothelial keratoplasty, in which only the endothelial cell layer is transplanted rather than a full-thickness corneal button. Ninety of last year's transplant procedures were endothelial keratoplasties.
The procedure does not require a full-thickness donor graft, which allows the use of corneas that would otherwise have been destroyed, said Edmund Jacobs, the eye bank's executive director, in the release. Also, the procedure can be done earlier than a penetrating procedure.