BLOG: Pre-Descemet’s endothelial keratoplasty live surgery

This blog demonstrates a live PDEK surgery that was performed at the Indian Intraocular Implant and Refractive Society meeting in Chennai, India, by Amar Agarwal, MS, FRCS, FRCOphth. Friends and eminent surgeons from the United States and across the world who attended the conference included Gabor Scharioth, Susan McDonald, Nicole Fram, Alan Crandall, Arun Gulani, Theo Seiler, Yuri McKee, Daniel Durrie and many more. The live surgery began with the preparation of donor graft. A 30-gauge needle attached to an air-filled 5-mL syringe was introduced from the corneoscleral junction up to the mid-periphery with the endothelial side up. Air was injected, and a type 1 bubble was formed, which spreads characteristically from the center to the periphery. The edge of the bubble was ruptured with a side-port blade, and trypan blue was injected to stain the graft. The graft was cut with corneoscleral scissors all around the edge of the bubble. The graft was stored and placed into MK medium.