Hallym University Kangnam Sacred Heart Hospital

Dr. Ho Sik Hwang, professor of ophthalmology at Hallym University Chuncheon Sacred Heart Hospital, succeeded a Descemet’s Membrane Striping Endothelial Keratoplasty surgery, making him the first physician in Gangwon Province to successfully complete such type of surgery.

Dr. Hwang has performed Descemet's Membrane Stripping Endothelial Keratoplasty to a 61-year old patient suffering from bullous keratopathy in her right eye. The disease is caused by endothelial dysfunction and the corneal stroma is edematous.

Descemet's Stripping Endothelial Keratoplasty, also known as DSEK in acronym, is rapidly becoming the preferred method of treatment for corneal endothelial dysfunction. It removes Descemet’s membrane and transplant partial parts of corneal endothelium from donated cornea. Because DESEK makes incision of 4 to 5 millimeter of a patient’s cornea, it reduces astigmatism and resistant to trauma compared to a method of penetrating keratoplasty.

Dr. Hwang fixed the donor corneal button on the artificial anterior chamber and made lamellar dissection with corneal dissectors. He used the posterior lamellar lenticule for DSEK donor.

By Miju Kim, Int’l Cooperation Team, HUMC (miju@hallym.or.kr)