Opinion
When speaking of transplant success stories, don't leave out developments with corneas
LETTER — Posted March 1, 2004
Regarding "Transplants: 50 years of saving lives" (Article, Feb. 16):
Corneal transplantation surgery was being undertaken in the 1940s, well ahead of kidney transplantation. As time went on, new developments in this discipline resulted in a mean success rate of 90%. In addition, preservation methods allow corneas to be maintained viable for up to two weeks.
Tissue Bank International, the preeminent network for cornea distribution, has made it possible to minimize waiting time to almost zero making corneal transplantation a schedulable surgery.
Graft rejection occurs in 10% of grafts. Over 90% of these are reversed. Topical medication used for both maintaining graft function and reversing rejection have no systemic side effects to speak of. All of the above advances should leave other transplant surgeons envious.
Ezra Maguen, MD, Los Angeles
Editor's note: Dr. Maguen is a clinical professor of ophthalmology at the Jules Stein Eye Institute, UCLA School of Medicine.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2004/03/01/edlt0301.htm.