There are 4 million corneal blindness patients in China.
Corneal disease has become the second blindness after cataract. Corneal transplantation is the main method to restore vision in patients with corneal blindness. However, for some diseases, such as severe ocular chemical injury, it will not only cause serious ocular surface abnormalities such as corneal conjunctivalization, but also lead to extensive stromal scar and neovascular invasion. Corneal transplantation is prone to immune rejection, leading to failure of the operation.
In addition, patients with severe ocular chemical injuries often have full-thickness corneal opacification due to the serious destruction of cornea and limbal stem cells. Penetrating keratoplasty, lamellar keratoplasty and other operations can not solve the problem of maintaining the transparency of the grafts for a long time after surgery, especially with severe eyelid and conjunctival sac function abnormalities. At present, only artificial cornea may bring the last line of hope for such patients.
Artificial cornea is a special refractive device made of heterogeneous shaped materials. It can be implanted into the patient's eyes through surgery to replace the turbid corneal tissue, so that the patient can obtain useful vision.
Since French doctor quengsy proposed the concept of artificial cornea in 1789, many relevant clinical studies have been reported.
Boston artificial cornea jointly developed by Harvard University and Massachusetts Eye and Ear Hospital is the most widely used in the world. Its optical part is composed of two small plates and a column handle connected in the middle, and a C-shaped titanium ring locks the rear plate. Its front plate contains lenses with refractive power. It should be noted that the whole artificial cornea needs to be installed on a fresh donor corneal graft, which will inevitably lead to rejection.
In 1998, a soft artificial cornea AlphaCor artificial cornea was put into clinical use. This product requires that patients should not have serious ocular surface diseases, serious dry eyes and acute inflammatory reactions, and the price is extremely expensive. Therefore, it is limited to develop in China.
In 2021, Michal artificial cornea was launched. It is the first and only artificial cornea in the world that does not require donor cornea implantation, filling the gap in ophthalmology.
Although it has just been listed, the "social experience" of MIH artificial cornea can be quite a lot. Previously, Michal artificial cornea has successfully completed the "task" in the General Hospital of the people's Liberation Army and Beijing Tongren Hospital, helping many blind people to regain their vision, especially the severe corneal scar vascularization caused by severe chemical burns of both eyes, severe conjunctival sac abnormality, multiple corneal transplantation rejection, and neovascularization of many implantation beds. It is impossible to perform corneal transplantation to restore vision, and it is even more important to see the light again through Michal artificial cornea.
Huang Yifei, Wang Dajiang, Wang Liqiang and other well-known professors have conducted a study on the application of artificial cornea in the treatment of severe chemical burns. They selected 28 patients who were treated in the ophthalmology department of the General Hospital of the people's Liberation Army from October 2000 to March 2006 and were blinded due to severe chemical burns to perform Michaels artificial cornea transplantation. The research results show that the blindness rate of the patients in the observation period can reach 75%, The short-term visual acuity after operation was very effective.
As we all know, the important complication of artificial cornea is the most important factor that endangers the safety of eyeball. In particular, corneal dissolution and water leakage will also lead to artificial cornea discharge and intraocular infection. However, this thorny problem will not occur when using the Michaelis artificial cornea. The Michaelis artificial cornea is implanted with a stent and a lens column in two stages, which can significantly reduce the complications of corneal leakage and make the operation safer.
Michaelis artificial cornea has a wide range of indications. In addition to the recognized indications, such as double blindness, thick cornea and many blood vessels, good retinal function, normal intraocular pressure, or glaucoma control, and no obvious activity and inflammatory reaction in the eyes, corneal transplantation failure, eyelid atresia, serious autoimmune diseases (such as Stevens Johnson syndrome and cicatricial pemphigoid), corneal blindness caused by end-stage dry eyes are also within its indications, That is to say, all patients who cannot recover their eyesight through conventional treatment can use Michal artificial cornea to recover their eyesight.