З відкритих джерел
Gail Lane will become one of the first patients in Canada to have a tooth with a special lens inserted into her eye to restore her vision.
Ten years ago, the woman stopped seeing. She has never seen the man, she has been dating for the past 8 years. She does not know what her close friends and relatives look like now. However, everything may change soon.
«I have never met Phil And I have friends who have come along very recently that I’ve never met», — says Gail Lane.
During the operation the surgeon removed one of the woman’s teeth, drilled a hole in it and inserted a tiny lens, and in 3 months the whole structure is to be implanted in her eye. This operation is called osteo-odonto-keratoprosthetics.
It is very rarely performed, but it helps to restore vision in patients who have serious scarring in their eyes due to trauma. For people with irreversible damage corneas, as in the case of Gail Lane, is the last hope for the return of vision.
Ophthalmologists do not consider it absurd to use a tooth as a basis for an artificial lens, since hard dentin provides a stable, durable structure that will not be rejected by the body.
«There is no risk of rejection because we are using a part of the patient’s own body», — explains surgeon Greg Moloney from the hospital Mount St. Joseph in Vancouver.
The operation should take place in 2 stages. First, one of the canine teeth is removed and carefully shaped to the required shape. A small hole is drilled in it, into which a plastic optical lens is inserted. After that, the tooth is sutured into the patient’s cheek, where it remains for three months until a layer of tissue grows around it. Subsequently, a fragment of skin from the patient’s mouth is applied to the damaged eye.
«We apply it to the entire eyeball to try to let it take root And then it turns into this pink, healthy, happy substance», — says Greg Moloney.
In 3 months the tooth, now accommodated into its own living tissue, is extracted from the cheek and implanted into the eye The iris and other damaged parts of the eye are removed, and the structure crystal tooth carefully is sewn into place. Tissue from the oral cavity is pulled back over the eye, with a small incision so that the patient can see.
In case of successful operation patients’ vision begins to recover in the first month.
Brent Chapman, a 33-year-old resident of North Vancouver, is one of two other patients who underwent the surgery around the same time, in late February. At first, he was skeptical until he spoke with a woman from Australia who had a similar procedure.
«She was completely blind for 20 years and now she goes skiing I know it sounds a little crazy and sci-fi», — Chapman says.
Chapman lost his sight as a teenager after an autoimmune reaction to ibuprofen triggered Stevens-Johnson syndrome, a rare but devastating condition that caused severe burns to his body, including his eyes. Over the past 20 years, he has undergone 50 surgeries, including 10 corneal implants. None of them were fully effective. The procedure is not without its risks, including potential infections that can lead to complete vision loss. But for those who already have no vision, the risk is worth it.
Although a similar operation The technology itself has been around for decades. It was first performed in Italy in the 1960s. Moreover, A recent study involving 59 Italian patients who underwent the procedure between 1969 and 2011 showed that 94% still had implants.
Currently, such operations are conducted only in the UK, Germany, and India. One such operation was conducted in the United States in 2009Greg Moloney has already performed 7 such operations in Australia and now hopes to make them available to Canadians.
Source: ZME Science