Use of trypan blue dye during conversion of deep anterior lamellar keratoplasty to penetrating keratoplasty
Accepted 30 March 2008.
We describe a technique that uses trypan blue dye to identify residual recipient corneal stroma and Descemet membrane (DM) during conversion of deep anterior lamellar keratoplasty (DALK) to penetrating keratoplasty (PKP). After the host cornea is dissected, trypan blue dye (0.06%) is used to highlight the remaining host corneal stroma and DM, if any. In 8 DALK procedures that had to be converted to PKP because of DM perforation, trypan blue staining identified remnants of DM and parts of the posterior corneal stroma in 7 eyes. Improved visualization of the residual host tissue enabled complete excision and an overall optimal recipient wound profile.
From the Rajendra Prasad Centre for Ophthalmic Sciences (Sharma, Jhanji, Titiyal, Vajpayee), All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India; and the Centre for Eye Research Australia (Amiel, Vajpayee), and the Department of Ophthalmology, University of Melbourne, Australia
Corresponding author: Rasik B. Vajpayee, MS, FRCS (Edin), Centre for Eye Research Australia, University of Melbourne, 32, Gisborne Street, East Melbourne, Victoria 3002, Australia.
No author has a financial or proprietary interest in any material or method mentioned.