Tab Article

This edition of the book is about the art and the practice of keratopigmentation, a new type of corneal surgery that has opened new perspectives in therapeutic and cosmetic innovative applications to many patients who were formerly candidates for more invasive therapeutic mutilating procedures and, modern keratopigmentation is also a new way to apply corneal surgery for purely cosmetic purposes. This edition is necessary to offer those ophthalmologists interested in this topic, especially corneal and oculoplastic surgeons, a comprehensive outlook about the innovations, outcomes, complications, and future perspectives of this emerging new type of corneal surgical procedures. The keratopigmentation has become feasible with new tools, new pigments, and especially new knowledge about corneal behavior and tolerance to these pigments. The book tries to gather together all the medical evidence and scientific information available on this topic to offer ophthalmologists and in particular corneal surgeons the possibility of using this technique for many patients who will benefit from its cosmetic therapeutic applications (leukomas and blind eyes, phthisical eyes with deformations as an alternative to evisceration and prosthesis), functional therapeutic applications (aniridic patients, colobomas, traumatic iris losses), or even purely cosmetic applications (changing the color of the eye on a voluntary basis). The clinical atlas will show clearly the evolution of this technique in our hands over the years and the evidence-based outcomes of keratopigmentation today, using adequate techniques and selected pigments. In the experimental atlas, we describe the methods that we have been using for the purpose of these investigations and indeed the outstanding knowledge that is obtained from the experimental models that we have used. The reader will find particularly interesting the chapter that includes the Clinical Atlas of Keratopigmentation, showing a large number of cases that cover the different indications of the keratopigmentation techniques and the real facts and possibilities that corneal pigmentation may give our patients for therapeutic, cosmetic functional, or purely cosmetic purposes. The cases have been selected from the many ones we have to indicate the evolution of the procedure. The initial cases performed by us show more variability in colors, while all cases have proven to be effective and stable depending on the quality of the colors used.