DR CORNEA TRANSPLANT QUESTIONS

 (print out and take along to the dr appointment)

 All information provided in this site,

as well as the sites for which you find links provided herein,

is NOT intended to take the place of the care of a qualified fuchs'

experienced eye professional. 

DO NOT do ANY of the "tips" or suggestions in these sites

without the express permission and supervision of your professional eye dr. 

This group, and these sites, are not responsible for any problems as a result of the information provided.

MAIN LIBRARY PAGE

MAIN INFORMATION INDEX

DETERMINATION OF KIND OF TRANSPLANT AND EXPERIENCE DOING THEM

*1.  How long have you done the following, and on about how many patients:

Full (PK) transplants:   How long:_________    # patients:________ 

DSEK:                            How long:________     # patients:________ 

DSAEK:                         How long:________     # patients:________

DMEK:                          How long:_________   # patients:________

2. What kind of cornea transplant are you proposing to do on me?

___ Traditional Full Transplant     __ DSEK    __DSAEK   __ DMEK

* (IMPORTANT note to patient: full AND partial cornea transplants are very

complex operations.  Partial transplants are MUCH more difficult to do than

full ones.  The kind of transplant you have done is YOUR choice- NOT your dr's. 

No matter what kind of major surgery you have done,

common sense tells us that the one that the surgeon

has the most experience doing, with the least amount of problems

immediately after the surgery, will be the safest one to have.  

Compare your drs' experience between full and partial transplants

when making YOUR decision as to which to have done.

Use the full and partial transplant questions below to

determine their experience is with both before you

decide what is best for your eyes and future vision.

3. If you are proposing doing a partial transplant, would you be willing to do

a full one if that's what the patient prefers? ___________________

4. Will you, yourself, be doing my entire surgery?______

 If not, what portion will you be doing?  ________________________________

If not, who will be doing the rest, and how experienced are they at doing

this kind of surgery? ___________________________________

5. Will I be seeing you for follow-up exams?  ________________

If not, who will I be seeing, and how experienced are they with this

kind of procedure themself? _______________________________

PARTIAL TRANSPLANT QUESTIONS

(dsek, dsaek, plk, dmek):

(note to patient:  if dr says a high % of any questions #1-8 it is a red flag)

1. What is YOUR patient graft dislocation percentage?___________

2. What is YOUR patient graft failure rate (for any reason)? _______

3. What is YOUR patient pupil problem (including pupillary block) rate? ____________

4. What is the percentage of YOUR patients who had to have an additional air bubble inserted? __________ (note to patient: putting in more air bubbles can create even more cell loss)

5. How many of your patients developed closed-angle glaucoma after the surgery, who didn't have it prior to the surgery? ______________

6. What is the percentage of YOUR partial transplant patients who had graft failures, or  had to have the surgery redone for any reason?  ______________

7. What is the percentage of YOUR partial transplants who had the graft stick to the iris, or create any kind of iris problem, after the surgery? _________

8. What is the percentage of YOUR partial transplants who had interface haze after the surgery?__________        What percentage STILL has it?________________

9.  Do I have scar tissue from blisters, or map-dot dystrophy?  If so, how is doing a partial transplant going to fix the scar tissue, or get rid of the map-dot disease? _______________________________________________

9a. What is the vision of YOUR patients after doing this 2nd procedure to fix the scar tissue, and how does it compare with the vision one year after if they had a full transplant done? __________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________

10. Do we know the long-term results and/or complications from partial transplants?

________________________________________________________________

 ____________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________

FULL TRANSPLANT QUESTIONS:

(note: there are far fewer questions for full transplants as for partial ones,

because currently there are fewer things that can go wrong right after a

full transplant than a partial one, and because the drs generally

have many more years of experience -and more patients with them-

than with the partial transplants)

1. What is your success rate with full transplants? _________________

2. About how many of YOUR  full transplant patients had astigmatism

so bad it couldn't be  corrected in any way?

_________________________

3. What percentage of YOUR patients had 20/20 corrected vision after a year?

     __________       

IMPORTANT

Always remember that the kind of transplant you have done is YOUR CHOICE.  If you decide, after asking the above questions, that you want to have a partial transplant done, it is VITAL that you know the following information for after your surgery:

"Nausea and/or severe pain can be a sign of increased intraocular pressure. 

If you have this after your surgery but before you see the surgeon as scheduled t

he day after surgery, you need to call and/or get back to the hospital ASAP. 

Even if you think that any nausea might be from the anesthetic or something you ate,

it is important to call your surgeon.  They will ask you questions about other symptoms

and tell you if they need to see you again right away."

For more important post-transplant questions to ask your dr after a partial transplant,

click here.