On keratoplasty

Keratoplasty is usually divided into 1) heteroplasty and 2) homoplasty. The first one means corneal transplantation from an animal to a human. During this operation the transplant may survive, but it soon becomes cloudy. Thus, the late Professor E. Adamyuk transplanted 8 patients corneas taken from different animals (chickens, rats), and to preserve transparency of a transplant he transplanted not one cornea, but with a part of sclera; in 7 of these cases engraftment of a transplant turned out good, but it became turbid soon. Homoplasty refers to transplantation of corneae from person to person, and distinguishes between 1) transplantation of the front part of the eye, 2) partial corneal transplantation and 3) complete transplantation, when all scarred cornea is removed and replaced by a whole transparent cornea from another person.