When I first got the invitation to be the guest editor of this issue of Corneal Physician, I was quite excited! This was an opportunity for me to compile many of the exciting things that are happening in the corneal sphere around the world. So, I grabbed the offer and put together a list of innovations, challenges, and focused topics that all corneal surgeons would love to know more about!
Corneal Endothelial Replacements
The articles by Drs. Sorcha Ní Dhubhghaill and Michael Mimouni on artificial corneal endothelium and 3D-printed ex vivo-expanded endothelial keratoplasty respectively, bring into light the possibility of hugely increasing the reach of endothelial replacement techniques, while bringing down the dependence on scarce donor corneal tissue. Drs. Dhivya Ashok Kumar, Amar Agarwal, Ashvin Agarwal, and my article on pre-Descemet’s endothelial keratoplasty, highlight its advantages in improving ease of surgery in routine as well as challenging cases while also increasing the donor pool by making possible thin membrane endothelial keratoplasty from donor corneas of any age, including very young corneas as well. Exciting days ahead indeed!
Artificial Corneas
The articles on Corneat KPro by Dr. Gilad Litvin, LVP Keratoprosthesis by Dr. Sayan Basu and artificial corneal endothelium by Dr. Ní Dhubhghaill enlighten the reader about the nitty gritties of artificial replacements for the cornea when nothing else works!
Antimicrobial Therapy
Harnessing Rose Bengal photodynamic therapy to up the ante against infectious keratitis — straight from Dr. Guillermo Amescua’s research lab, along with co-author Dr. Salomon Merikansky — and the article on slit lamp CXL for corneal ulcers by Dr. Farhad Hafezi help bring into focus adjunct techniques for this difficult to treat condition. The treatment of infectious keratitis is addressed, especially emphasizing its role in situations where close follow up is difficult.
Artificial Intelligence
No issue would be complete without discussing yet newer ways of how artificial intelligence (AI) is going to be helping ophthalmologists and patients alike! Drs. Shady T. Awwad and Jad F. Assaf, describe the AI developed by his team which is able to determine the type of refractive surgery done just by looking at optical coherence tomography scans of the patient, thus helping in diagnosis as well as, if required, in determining ways for further treatment.
Corneal Save
This issue’s corneal save was written by me describing a case of inferior corneal dehiscence during peribulbar block that was managed by inverted extracapsular cataract extraction and supracapsular glued IOL. Inversion is challenging but gets the job done!
Corneal Allogeneic Intrastromal Ring Segments
Finally, I also had fun writing an article on how Corneal Allogeneic Intrastromal Ring Segments — which is being increasingly used in the treatment of keratoconus to bring improvements in uncorrected and best corrected visual acuity as well as other visual and tomographic parameters — can also be used very effectively for the treatment of post-LASIK ectasia.
While it is of course impossible to cover all the exciting things happening in ophthalmology in one issue, we are pleased to bring you additional online exclusive content, highlighting other key innovations in the cornea space! Be sure to check out the lineup in the table of contents! I hope you have as much fun reading this issue as I had in putting it together! CP
