Artificial Cornea

Artificial cornea is an option for transplant patients who cannot tolerate a human donor cornea.  Dr. Price developed a modified technique to help minimize post-operation complications.

  As reported in the Indianapolis Star, Dr. Francis W. Price, Jr. successfully performed the first artificial cornea transplant in Indiana on an 85 year-old male patient. Dr. Price is medical director of the Cornea Research Foundation of America and was the first Indiana surgeon to be accredited to implant the AIphaCor cornea, the first internationally approved artificial cornea implant. The device provides a viable alternative to patients who reject human cornea tissue transplants and have no other options to improve or regain vision.

The AIphaCor Artificial Cornea was developed at the Lions Eye Institute in Perth, Australia, and is designed to replace diseased or damaged corneas or failed human transplants. Its dimensions, flexibility and optics allow it to be implanted and perform in a similar manner to a donor corneal graft.
"AIphaCor is made of a biocompatible polymer that precludes the need for immunosupressant therapies usually required with human donor tissue," said Dr. Price. "The artificial cornea looks like a clear donor corneal graft with a visible spongy rim. The patient's own cells grow into this outer rim and hold it in place, allowing the eye to function normally. !t is soft and flexible."

It has been estimated that up to 10 million in the world people suffer corneal blindness. Only 100,000 corneal transplants are performed each year worldwide due to the lack of access to donor tissue, which has been described as an international crisis in public health. For more than 200 years, scientists have tried to create an artificial cornea. Corneal blindness may be caused by accidents or diseases damaging the front of the eye. When the rest of the eye functions fully, the cornea is the only part of the eye needed to restore sight.

"One of the benefits of the artificial cornea is that patients no longer have to rely on a regimen of drugs taken over the course of their lives," said Dr. Price. "The success rate of corneal transplants has increased markedly over the last 40 years, but there are some situations where human donor transplants don't work. AIphaCor fills this void. The device is a huge step forward for people with corneal blindness who have rejected human tissue or who live in areas where corneal tissue is not readily available. In addition, the artificial cornea only requires one eye drop medication taken daily post-surgery."