Surgeons at Israel’sShaare Zedek Medical Center（SZMC）已成功将世界最薄的人造角膜移植到患者的眼睛中。耶路撒冷邮报报告。
由医疗设备制造商开发Eyeyon, the implant itself was just 50 microns thick and 3D printed from synthetic materials, to ensure that it wouldn’t be rejected by its human host. Having now been used to restore the sight of a local patient, in what’s believed to have been the first procedure of its kind, the device is expected to drastically improve the future availability of corneal transplants.
“This is another step toward a future in which the dependence on the availability of human tissue for the purpose of performing corneal transplants in patients who need it will be reduced,” Dr. Liron Berkovich, one of the team behind the transplant, told The Jerusalem Post. “Instead of using a cornea from a person who has died, they will use a custom-made cornea with full availability.”
改善植入物可访问性
According to EyeYon, the human ocular endothelium can never regenerate, and when it’s injured or shows signs of aging, this can lead to something called a ‘corneal edema.’ Early signs of the condition include pain, swelling and clouded vision, but if left untreated it can cause permanent damage to the eye and affect people’s ability to see.
At present, treating corneal edemas tends to rely on donated tissues, meaning that patients often have to wait for months before undergoing corrective surgery. What’s more, such procedures don’t come with a guarantee of success, as the body can reject donor corneas, leaving some of those that undergo treatment continuing to suffer from vision loss.
As an alternative to biological implants, EyeYon has now developed ‘EndoArt,’ a 3D printed cornea made from a sterile biocompatible acrylic that’s said to be inherent to human tissue. Once applied, the device is designed to attach to the posterior of patients’ corneas, before creating a passive barrier to the fluid that builds up to cause edemas, while allowing for optical nutrition exchange around its sides.
该公司表示，通过合成的内托材料合成，将来可以使水肿处理更加“全球可用”，同时使用3D打印来制造它，使公司可以继续迭代设备的设计。
However, prior to its deployment at the SZMC, the implant may have gained以色列卫生部在Eyeyon到美国的类似申请后的批准FDA, but it had only previously been shipped to the Netherlands, India and China.
给予恢复的视线礼物
Having successfully tested its implants on rabbits in lab settings, EyeYon has been seeking to put them into practice by using them to treat human patients, and it chose an SZMC case to do so. The patient in question was a 71-year-old Muslim Arab from Jerusalem, whose body had previously rejected an implant sourced from a cadaver two years ago, thus he continued to suffer from ocular discomfort.
由SZMC的教授David Zadok和角膜疾病专家Liron Berkovich博士表演，手术看到了两毫米切口，将其插入了患者的眼睛，通过该切口将设备固定在其内皮组织上。
Since the surgery, the patient’s vision is said to have been restored, and he no longer suffers from the discomfort caused by the swelling of fluids in his eye. As an added bonus, it has been reported that the procedure didn’t require him to stay in the hospital for recovery at all, and he was able to arrive, receive treatment and leave in a single day.
Following the successful transplant, Zadok revealed that his department performs 60 to 70 corneal procedures per year, and around half of these could soon involve using synthetic implants instead. On this occasion, EyeYon is believed to have provided the EndoArt free of charge, but it’s expected that any future orders would have to be paid for via Israel’s health service, as part of a commercial transaction.
打印升级的光学植入物
In the past, 3D printing has not just been deployed to create optimized optical transplants, but implants for those patients suffering from damaged eye sockets as well. Late last year, a man from London reportedly became the recipient of the世界的第一个3D印刷眼移植via a clinical trial, through which it was hoped that the technology would showcase its ability to slash patient waiting times.
At the巴塞尔大学同时，研究人员提出了3 d打印眼窝植入物, designed to reduce the risk of rejection upon human transplantation. Produced from PEEK using aPrusa i33D打印机，据说多孔设备是可以高度定制的，这意味着可以针对单个患者的需求进行定制，并更好地促进细胞再生。
In the world of veterinary medicine, a team atChungbuk国立大学以前也开发了低成本的3D印刷眼睛。旨在治疗因无法治愈的疾病而失去真实眼睛的犬类，植入物可以通过现成的生物相容性树脂迅速打印3D，这可能使它们成为兽医程序中便宜且易于使用的选择。
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特色图像显示了与David Zadok教授和Liron Berkovich博士一起移植患者。通过耶路撒冷邮报SZMC的照片。
