A New First for SC: Dr. Heather Skeens Performs Artificial Corneal Transplantation
You probably think of blindness as a disease of old age. But a relatively rare condition, aniridia, causes progressive loss of vision beginning early in life. In this podcast, two South Carolinians, Brandon Costanza and Tiffany Smith, tell the story of their gradual blindness and the remarkable operation performed by MUSC ophthalmologist Dr. Heather Skeens.
Shortly after coming to MUSC last year, Dr. Skeens performed a new operation that had never been attempted in South Carolina before. Tiffany and Brandon both needed cornea transplants, but a traditional procedure with human cadaveric corneas would have provided transplants vulnerable to the same disease process that caused the original problem. The solution: corneal transplants using synthetic materials.
This surgery is only one of a number of procedures that has established MUSC's Storm Eye Institute as one of the leading centers in the world for the research and treatment of eye conditions. For more information, please go to www.muschealth.com.