Can cornea be malnourished? A brother and sister both need corneal transplants

Blurred vision was caused by corneal dystrophy. The brother and sister suffered from a rare genetic disease, congenital corneal dystrophy, and almost faced blindness at the same time. Fortunately, the Wuhan University Aier Eye Hospital (Wuhan Aier Eye Hospital) recently performed corneal transplants on them, and they finally regained their sight.

The siblings are troubled by hereditary corneal eye disease

Song Fang (pseudonym), 55 years old this year, and his sister Song Yuan (pseudonym) are from Chongyang, Hubei. They experienced decreased vision in both eyes 10 years ago. They were diagnosed with plaque corneal dystrophy at the Affiliated Affiliated Aier Eye Hospital of Wuhan University (Wuhan Aier Eye Hospital). Because the condition of their right eye was serious at the time, the siblings underwent corneal transplant surgery on their right eyes one after another.

Two years ago, the brother and sister's left eye, which had not undergone surgery, showed a significant decline in vision, but due to the family's financial difficulties, they did not seek medical treatment. Until this year, they found that they could only see a large area of ​​slightly weak light, and their vision had seriously affected their normal life. Accompanied by their family, they came to Wuhan University Aier Eye Hospital (Wuhan Aier Eye Hospital) again.

After examination by the hospital's ocular surface and cornea specialist, Director Wu Shangcao, it was found that the opacity of the left cornea of ​​the Song Fang siblings had gradually worsened with age. If they did not undergo corneal transplantation as soon as possible, they would face the risk of blindness.

Aier Eye Bank helps restore sight through corneal transplantation

Taking into account the special conditions of the left eyes of the Song Fang siblings, after confirming the surgical plan, Director Wu Shangcao immediately contacted the Aier Eye Bank and allocated two precious corneas. Last Saturday, a corneal transplant operation was successfully performed for them, and they are currently recovering.

Wu Shangcao introduced that the disease Song Fang and his sister suffered from was plaque corneal dystrophy, an autosomal recessive genetic disease. This corneal disease caused by genetics often occurs in adolescents or young and middle-aged people. The course of the disease progresses slowly, and there is usually no new blood vessel growth in the lesion area. At the beginning, it only invades a certain layer of the cornea, and in the late stage it can spread to adjacent layers and even affect the entire cornea. Corneal dystrophy is mainly caused by the deposition of abnormal metabolic products in the cornea, which leads to a decrease in corneal transparency and then causes vision loss.

He reminded that corneal malnutrition, corneal leukoplakia, corneal ulcer, corneal perforation, etc., like the Song Fang siblings, can be replaced by corneal transplantation to restore the cloudy corneal tissue. Therefore, once patients experience symptoms such as decreased vision, photophobia, tearing, blurred vision, etc., they should go to the hospital for help in time.