Skip to content
Contact About us Swedish residents

Cornea transplant

Cornea unit at St Erik Eye hospital is the largest in country, dealing with cornea pathology of all etiologies and performing all types of surgery. Transplantation surgery at present is predominantly lamellar. The unit includes an Eye bank, authorized and regularly audited by Swedish health authorities.

In cornea transplantation, keratoplasty, a sick och damaged part of the cornae is replaced by healthy tissue from a deceased individual, medically suitable as a tissue donor.

The main reason for keratoplasty is poor vision due to reduced transparency or altered shape of the cornea, where other means of visual improvement have failed or are not suitable.

The corneal tissue is donated by a deceased individual. The deceased's consent to donate has been obtained from the donation register or through the instructions of relatives. St. Erik Eye Hospital manages a cornea bank where donated corneas are stored for transplantation. 
 
Several quality checks are carried out before the tissue can be approved. The deceased must not have had any communicable diseases, and the cornea must be sterile tested and of good quality. The cornea is stored in a tissue bank until all tests are completed. After a couple of weeks of storage, it then can be used. 
 
Unlike, for example, kidney or liver transplantation, the risk of rejection in cornea transplants is minor due to the cornea lacking its own vessels. Therefore, as a rule, we do not need to match donor and recipient, and the patient also does not need to receive strong immunosuppressive medications. However, this does not mean that the new cornea cannot be rejected, and eye drop treatment with cortisone is absolutely necessary for at least a year followin the transplant. 

Center
St. Erik Eye Hospital
A visionary eye hospital offering highly advanced ophthalmology care.