Two persons from the Social Insurance Fund for military-insured persons had successful corneal transplants at the Military Medical Academy on Tuesday, October 31, 2023.

The two perforative keratoplasty operations went smoothly thanks, first of all, to the humanity and consent of the donor's family members, also military insured, and then to the coordination of the different medical teams of the MMA. The postoperative course in both patients who underwent corneal transplants in MMA is going according to plan with the administration of appropriate therapy.

Although the cornea transplant operation does not last long, it is preceded by various preparations for the donated tissue and the recipient. First of all, it is necessary to examine the conditions in which the explanted tissue can be transplanted according to all criteria. Then the existence of the Eye Bank of the MMA is important to save the tissue in adequate conditions in time for analysis and preparation  of tissue recipient patients for general anesthesia. Also, at the Institute of Transfusion and Hemobiology of the Military Medical Academy, all evaluations and tests were performed to rule out transmissible diseases and the like.

In the MMA - the only tertiary-type military medical institution, priority for this type of operation is given to military-insured persons until the formation of a unique republican list for corneal transplantation by the Directorate for Biomedicine of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Serbia.

The recipient of the eye tissue, in this case, the cornea, cannot be a person with a disease characterized by a severe degree of dry eyes, Stevens-Johnson syndrome, or marked neovascularization of the cornea, because transplant rejection can be expected in such patients.

Indications for corneal transplantation in our country, i.e. for the most commonly performed optical, perforative keratoplasty, are pseudophakic bullous keratopathy, corneal dystrophies, keratoconus, Fuchs's endothelial dystrophy, corneal leukoma (a large scar on the cornea), various corneal degenerations and others.

The Clinic for Eye Diseases, together with other organizational units of the MMA, is fully equipped with the equipment and staff to perform this complex transplant procedure.