Question

Do you know that corneal impairment can be cured by replacing the defective cornea with the cornea of the donated eye? How and why should we organize groups to motivate the community members to donate their eyes after death?

Answer 1

Corneal impairment can be caused by corneal disease, infections, or degenerative diseases. The symptoms of the corneal disease include pain, blurred vision, tearing, redness, extreme sensitivity to light, and corneal scarring. It can be cured by transplanting cornea from a donated eye.

Complete answer:
Yes, it is possible to replace defective cornea with the cornea of the donated eye which is called corneal transplantation. Penetrating keratoplasty can be done when the entire cornea needs to be replaced and lamellar keratoplasty can be done when only a part of the cornea is replaced. Corneal transplantation can be done when there is any corneal impairment.

Earlier people hesitated to donate their organs or body due to some misconceptions and myths and also they were not aware of transplantation. But nowadays some groups educate people to donate their perfectly working and healthy organs to donate after their death to someone in need. One should educate the others by convincing them that their organs will be used for a better purpose and they are saving someone’s life. Today even the small organ such as the eye can also be donated and transplanted into the one who needs it.

Note: But there are several other risks included while transplanting cornea from the donated cornea. The biggest risk in cornea transplantation is graft rejection and infection. As our body can recognize the external tissue, there are greater chances that the body will reject the transplanted cornea. The cornea does not contain any blood vessels and it receives nutrients from the aqueous humor so it heals slowly. Due to slow healing, it is more prone to get an infection.