A suction trephine block for marking donor corneal buttons

Area of Science:

• Ophthalmology
• Surgical Techniques
• Corneal Transplantation

Background:

• Penetrating keratoplasty (PK) is a common corneal transplantation procedure.
• Accurate alignment of donor and host corneal tissues is crucial for successful outcomes and minimizing post-operative astigmatism.
• Current techniques may face challenges with corneal tissue distortion during surgery.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe a simple and accurate technique for aligning the donor cornea button with the host cornea recipient bed during penetrating keratoplasty.
• To improve the precision of donor-host circumference matching.
• To reduce surgically induced astigmatism caused by misalignment.

Main Methods:

• A novel trephination block with radial cuts is used to create four epithelial marks on the donor cornea via suction.
• Similar radial marks are created on the host cornea using a radial keratotomy marker prior to trephination.
• Alignment of donor and host radial marks guides the placement of cardinal sutures.

Main Results:

• The described technique facilitates accurate matching of donor and host corneal circumferences.
• The method remains effective even with peripheral host cornea and sclera collapse.
• This alignment technique is expected to minimize astigmatism resulting from donor/host misalignment.

Conclusions:

• The described technique offers a straightforward and effective method for precise donor-host alignment in penetrating keratoplasty.
• This approach has the potential to improve visual outcomes by reducing astigmatism.
• The technique is adaptable to surgical conditions involving tissue distortion.