Essay Sample on Corneal Damage: Ensuring Eye Protection Despite Impairments

Introduction

Human beings depend on their senses for a wide range of their day to day activities accomplishment. However, impairments may occur whereby an organ or several organs fail to function correctly. This can be handled from various approaches. While some organs can be corrected through transplants, some cannot. One of the most important sensory organs is the human eye (Devasahayam, et al 382). However, at times, people may have their cornea, which is the layer which protects the eye from damage. This substantiates a cornea implant as will be discussed in this paper.

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Cornea implant is also called a keratoplasty. This procedure entails a damaged cornea victim receiving corneal tissue from another person. A damaged cornea affects one's ability to focus. One of the main reasons for corneal implants is to restore vision as a damaged cornea inversely affects patients' visual focusing power (Cruz et al). Other functions or motives of the transplants include the reduction of pain in case of a probably injured cornea and also for aesthetic purposes (Shimmura-Tomita et al, 260). The latter refers to stances when the cornea may look disfigured maybe resulting from diseases of the cornea. Owing to its sensory organ relationship, a damaged or ill functioning cornea results to loss of vision. Therefore, some of the diseases are conditions which can be rectified through a cornea transplant are highlighted below. The most common condition which substantiates a cornea implant is keratoconus, whereby the cornea bulges. Also clouding, swelling, thinning, and scarring of the cornea are also corrected by a corneal transplant. Additionally, Fuchs dystrophy and corneal ulcers may also be eliminated through performing corneal transplants (Yong et al).

While corneal transplants have recorded a massive show of success in history, there exist risks. These risks have been noted in some individuals and pose complex contraindications such as the emergence of new eye infections and glaucoma (Lee et al, 296), which relates to increases of pressure in the eyeball (Rohr et al, 38). Another common risk involved in cornea implants is cornea rejection. This is the situation through which the recipient's body may mistake the cornea as a foreign element and therefore fight it (Frigo et al). This often leads to the need of another cornea transplant cornea rejection often witnesses vision loss, eyeball redness and pain.

The benefits of corneal transplants are widely acknowledged as briefly highlighted below. First, cornea implants greatly improve vision for people with corneal conditions. The latest technologies in corneal transplants include the Descemet membrane endothelial keratoplasty (DMEK). Also, patients recover faster than in older methods such as Descemet stripping automated endothelial keratoplasty (DSAEK) (Hou et al). Therefore, patients can go back to their daily activities with ease, especially given that the patients have a better vision, which is a lead sense.

Conclusion

In conclusion, a damaged or improperly functioning cornea can take a negative toll on one's daily life as most activities may depend on accurate vision. Therefore, corneal transplants benefit such victims through the restoration of their vision as well as protecting other components of the visual sensory system. While there exist some risks, patients with corneal conditions ought to consider transplants as the risks occur, but only on negligible indices.

Works Cited

Cruz, Giovanna Karinny Pereira, et al. "Clinical and epidemiological aspects of cornea transplant patients of a reference hospital." Revista latino-americana de enfermagem 25 (2017). http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/1518-8345.1537.2897

Devasahayam, Raj, et al. "Implementation of Organ Culture storage of donor corneas: a 3 year study of its impact on the corneal transplant wait list at the Lions New South Wales Eye Bank." Cell and tissue banking 17.3 (2016): 377-385. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10561-016-9557-6

Frigo, A. C., et al. "Corneal transplantation activity over 7 years: changing trends for indications, patient demographics and surgical techniques from the Corneal Transplant Epidemiological Study (CORTES)." Transplantation proceedings. Vol. 47. No. 2. Elsevier, 2015. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.transproceed.2014.10.040

Hou, Yanhong, et al. "UV light crosslinking regresses mature corneal blood and lymphatic vessels and promotes subsequent highrisk corneal transplant survival." American Journal of Transplantation 18.12 (2018): 2873-2884. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajt.14874

Lee, Allie, et al. "Trends and determinants of familial consent for corneal donation in Chinese." Cornea 36.3 (2017): 295-299. doi: 10.1097/ICO.0000000000001091

Rohr, Ashley, et al. "Corneal transplant rejection after initiation of systemic antineoplastic agents." JCRS Online Case Reports 6.3 (2018): 37-39. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcro.2018.02.004

Shimmura-Tomita, Machiko, et al. "Penetrating keratoplasty performed by residents compared with an experienced cornea transplant surgeon." Journal of surgical education 74.2 (2017): 258-263. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsurg.2016.08.003

Yong, Kai-Ling, et al. "Cost minimization analysis of precut cornea grafts in Descemet stripping automated endothelial keratoplasty." Medicine 95.8 (2016). doi: 10.1097/MD.0000000000002887