Sealing corneal incisions and transplants

Ocular surgery wounds and penetrating eye injuries are generally closed with hair-fine sutures. We have shown that PTB can be used to seal these wounds. RB was applied to incisions in rabbit corneas followed by exposure to green light (Fig. 5A). The intraocular pressure at which leakage occurred (IOPL) during infusion of saline into the anterior chamber was determined immediately after surgery (Fig. 5B). The IOPL increased with increasing laser fluence (Fig. 5C). No reduction in the IOPL was observed up to 14 days after surgery in a separate group of rabbits and normal healing was observed (1, 3).

Figure 5. Sealing corneal incisions with PTB. (A) Incision in rabbit cornea was stained with RB then irradiated with green laser light. (B) Trace of IOP versus infusion time for an incision treated with PTB and for an untreated incision (control). (C) Laser fluence versus IOPL immediately after treatment.

PTB was evaluated for acute wound closure of penetrating keratoplasty incisions (corneal transplant). The incision in one eye of each rabbit was irradiated with 532 nm light and the contralateral control eye was untreated. Immediately after surgery the IOPL was greater for the PTB-treated eye in each rabbit suggesting that PTB may be a useful adjunct to sutures for approximating penetrating keratoplasty corneal incisions.

  Figure 6. Corneal transplants were sutured only or, in the contralateral eye, received subsequent PTB treatment. The intraocular pressure causing leakage of fluid from anterior chamber was measured.

Related Publications

1. Mulroy, L., J. Kim, I. Wu, P. Scharper, S. A. Melki, D. T. Azar, R. W. Redmond, and I. E. Kochevar (2000) Photochemical keratodesmos for repair of lamellar corneal incisions. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 41, 3335-3340.

3. Proano, C. E., L. Mulroy, E. Jones, D. T. Azar, R. W. Redmond, and I. E. Kochevar (2004) Photochemical keratodesmos for bonding corneal incisions. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 45, 2177-2181.

Research Projects

Mechanisms for light activated protein crosslinking
Closure of surgical wounds
Cornea: sealing incisions and transplantation
Peripheral nerve repair
Tendon repair
Blood vessel repair
Neocartilage generation