[Artificial cornea]

Abstract

The cornea is the anterior transparent hole of the eye and its replacement by a synthetic material proves indispensable in some kinds of corneal blindness when penetrating keratoplasty is impossible. For a long time, the keratoprosthesis have been developed by different authors but results were always disappointing. Our personal works have been centered on the utilization of an expanded fluorocarbon polymer as interface between the optic of the keratoprosthesis and the cornea of the recipient. This material has given us a lot of satisfactions but our prosthesis did not meet the criteria of a real artificial cornea because the rigid optic induced mechanical tolerance problems and did not allow the measure of the intraocular pressure. We have developed a new model of artificial cornea with a soft optical zone with a diameter of 6 mm and an haptic made of expanded fluorocarbon polymer pretreated in order to induce a fast cellular ingrowth. We hope that this new optical device could improve optical results and tolerance.