Abstract
Today, split cornea technique is an established procedure and is mostly used for two recipients by combining deep anterior lamellar keratoplasty (DALK) and Descemet membrane endothelial keratoplasty (DMEK) surgeries. However, for some surgical interventions including block excision with tectonic corneoscleral grafting, split cornea procedure is not planned regularly up to now. In the run-up for this procedure, normally a donor cornea with a bigger scleral ring is gained. Nonetheless, the preparation of the tectonic graft for covering the corneoscleral defect after block excision results in a rest donor cornea transplant which is normally too small for further regular size penetrating keratoplasties (PKs) or combined DALK/DMEK surgeries. However, using a modified donor transplant trephination technique, a corneoscleral transplant for regular size keratoplasties can be gained, also after preparation of a tectonic graft for block excision. Herein, we describe shortly this novel donor preparation technique, the differences compared to the standard procedure, possible applications, and the advantages and disadvantages for the first time.
