Upside-down DMEK harvesting techniques

DMEK in 2021: a myriad of techniques

DMEK (Descemet Membrane Endothelial Keratoplasty) is a posterior lamellar keratoplasty technique that involves replacing the patient’s damaged endothelium. As a minimally invasive technique, DMEK offers clinical benefits including rapid visual recovery and low occurrence of rejection. It has therefore become a reference technique in endothelial keratoplasty.

However, success relies on very delicate handling of the graft to preserve as much as possible the endothelium and guarantee its viability.

Objective is to isolate the Descemet membrane with the endothelium to obtain a (purely) endothelial graft (without any posterior stroma). The difficulty of this technique led operators, eye banks and surgeons to innovate and standardize this procedure. That's why DMEK graft preparation technique has undergone several evolutions.

Reproducible DMEK grafts can now be obtained by choosing the most suitable harvesting technique for each specific user and setting among these three:

- manual dissection technique

- pneumatic dissection technique

- hydrodissection technique.

This webinar provides a deep scientific understanding of different harvesting

techniques for DMEK graft preparation using dedicated products by Moria.

Eye surgeons, more especially anterior segment/corneal surgeons

Program : Speakers will present their techniques to harvest DMEK tissue

Moderator Pr Marc Muraine (Rouen, France):

• welcome
• introduction of 3 guest speakers
• benefits of DMEK for corneal endothelial disorders

Dr. Loay Daas (Homburg, Germany): Endothelial cell loss of the prestripped DMEK roll after preparation and storage

Mr. Alessandro Ruzza (Venise eye bank, Italy): Standardized DMEK graft preparation with Moria Busin punch in a routine eye bank setting

Pr. Marc Muraine (Rouen, France): Benefits of inverted technique with donor tissue presenting cataract incisions

Mr. Michael Szkarlat (Eversight eye bank, US): The single-use vacuum-assisted guarded donor punch for DMEK: a new step forward