METHOD OF RECONSTRUCTING THE EPITHELIAL LAYER OF THE CORNEA IN UNILATERAL LIMBAL INSUFFICIENCY SYNDROME BY OBTAINING LIMBAL STEM CELLS USING A LOW-ENERGY HIGH-FREQUENCY FEMTOSECOND LASER LDV Z8 Russian patent published in 2023 - IPC A61F9/07 A61F9/08 A61B3/125 

FIELD: medicine; ophthalmology.

SUBSTANCE: superficial excision of fibrovascular tissue is performed from the damaged eye, a vacuum ring is fixed on the surface of the eye, and a femtosecond laser head is attached to it. The cornea is scanned using an optical coherence tomography laser built into the handle, the location, depth and configuration of the incisions are specified. 8–10 tangential radial corneal tunnels are formed with a femtosecond laser. A limbal autograft is cut out on a healthy eye and divided into 8–10 fragments, one fragment is placed in each of the formed tunnels, a soft contact lens (SCL) is installed on the damaged eye. The limbal autograft is cut out and divided into fragments using a low-energy high-frequency femtosecond laser Femto LDV Z8 simultaneously. The vacuum ring of the femtosecond laser with a diameter of 10 mm is fixed on the surface of a healthy eye so that the lower part of the vacuum ring does not fall into the optical zone of the cornea. The depth of the horizontal cut and the level of energy used for the operation of the laser in the range of 100–120% are selected, the laser is activated and a limbal autograft 2.0–3.0 mm long, 1.5 mm wide, up to 350 μm thick is cut out with its help divided into 8–10 fragments. After the end of the laser operation, the resulting fragments of the limbal autograft are removed using iris-tweezers and placed in a conservation medium for temporary storage until transplantation. The place where the limbal autograft was taken is covered with the conjunctiva, two interrupted sutures are applied, and a CL is placed on the healthy eye. Then, the resulting fragments are placed in the tunnels formed on the surface of the damaged eye with a femtosecond laser, and the SCL is installed.

EFFECT: method makes it possible to obtain fragments of the limbal niche, complete in terms of cellular composition, intended for further transplantation into the damaged eye.

1 cl, 2 ex, 1 dwg