#  Latest Advances at Mass Eye and Ear 

 



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 Mass Eye and Ear clinicians provide the latest keratoplasty procedures for the treatment of Fuchs dystrophy. In 2014, cornea surgeons at Mass Eye and Ear began performing DMEK (Descemet membrane endothelial keratoplasty). This advanced treatment allows for a partial thickness corneal transplant and provides better outcomes with a decreased risk of rejection, quicker recovery, and improved vision. In 2018, clinicians from Mass Eye and Ear published a surgical technique for corneal edema stripping Descemet membrane without endothelial keratoplasty (DWEK), now more commonly known as Descemet’s stripping only (DSO). This study paved the way for a surgical approach for a subset of Fuchs dystrophy patients without using allogeneic tissue, thereby avoiding the risks of transplantation. There is also promising data on the use of Rho-kinase inhibitors to enhance cellular migration and corneal clearance after DSO. While much progress has been made in the medical and surgical management of Fuchs, there are also novel therapeutics in development, including cellular therapies aimed to eliminate corneal transplantation altogether. Furthermore, gene therapies and small molecules targeting specific molecular mechanisms involved in cellular degeneration hold promise as future treatment that arrest  
disease progression at earlier stages and avoid surgical intervention.