Transplant with Relaxing Incisions equals Pain

This is a photo of an eye that underwent corneal transplant surgery 30 years prior to the time this photo was taken. 15 years ago in an attempt to improve the patient’s vision with this eye, a corneal surgeon placed 2 “relaxing” incisions in the donor cornea. These incisions act in much the same way as RK incisions act. The result was a worsening of the patient’s vision in this eye. In addition, for the last 10 years this patient had unrelenting pain in this eye. One year ago this eye was fit with a scleral lens which not only improved this patient’s vision significantly, but also eliminated the pain she was experiencing. Look carefully at this photo and you will notice 2 green cuts on the donor cornea, one cut located at about 1:00 and the other located at 7:00. A special dye was used to highlight these open incisions, still open after all these years.