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Updated: Jun 8, 2026
Corneal Donor Tissue Preparation for Descemet's Membrane Endothelial Keratoplasty
Published on: September 17, 2014
A surgical technique for donor tissue harvesting for descemet membrane endothelial keratoplasty
Shameema Sikder1, Donald Ward, Albert S Jun
1Wilmer Eye Institute, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, MD 21287, USA.
Purpose:
To create a reproducible and effective technique in donor tissue harvesting for Descemet membrane (DM) endothelial keratoplasty.
Methods:
A new method has been developed for the harvest of donor DM and endothelium. This method involves placement of a human corneoscleral rim in an artificial anterior chamber with removal of the anterior stroma with a Moria One microkeratome (Moria USA, Doylestown, PA). The residual stromal bed over the central cornea is removed by blunt dissection using a Barraquer sweep. A thin rim of posterior residual stroma permits easy donor button trephination and tissue manipulation. The risk of tearing through DM is minimal and may not preclude use in transplantation. This method allows relatively easy assessment of endothelial integrity before trephination.
Results:
Optical coherence tomography evaluation revealed minimal stroma overlying DM and endothelium. Endothelial cell integrity of the harvested DM by this new harvest method was assessed using specular microscopy and demonstrated minimal loss after DM harvest.
Conclusions:
We presented a manual tissue harvest method for DM endothelial keratoplasty.
