diving and corneal transplant

[dcsdiving]

Just to let you know I had my transplant done last Tuesday (19/04).

simon,

glad to hear things are well so far. i missed the diving myself while i was healing up. i'm interested in how your experience goes.

my eye has been stitch free for 2 weeks now, and i think it's stabilized a bit. i can see well enough that i hope the difference in correction between the 2 eyes has decreased. this will make things a bit easier for me.

geoff

 

[Shadow]

Geoff,

Thank you so much for sharing your story. I recently had PRK surgery to correct RK surgery from 21 years ago. I was advised not to dive for three months. I thought that was a bit too conservative, but after reading your story, I think I'll listen to the optometrist. She said that she didn't even go swimming for three months after her own LASIK procedure.

Hope you are doing well. I can understand how annoying it is to have two different visions, and eyesight that can't be corrected with glasses at all. I, too, did not realize that could be an outcome of my initial surgery. Take care and best wishes.

 

[sbloomer]

Goeff and others

I thought it might be an idea to add my further experiences on this topic.

I had my second cornea transplant done in my left eye the last week of November - I had my right eye done in April.

So, the left eye...

It is is doing well at the moment and I currently have close to 20/30 vision without correction which is even better that my first transplant.

The right eye...

Soon after the left eye was done, the right eye became seriously infected and the doc then decided to whip out the holding stitches where the infection was occurring. After a lot of pain and stress the infection has cleared wih a little minor scarring. The doc will remove the running stitch next week, so after 9 months or so I will be totally stitch free in the right eye.

In terms of the transplant and diving, a lot of the research I have done and what my doc says suggest that the no-diving rules of 6 to 9 months after surgery have little to do with hyperbaric situations (at least after the first few months), but more to do with the risk of infection. My doc says under no circumstances should diving be done while there are still stitches in place, and suggests a wait of a couple of months after that. This advise seems to be sound considering how long after my original surgery I had an infection. Remember stitches will always be a way to allow nasties into the eye.

One thing the doc did mention though is that he is aware of mountaineers who have had transplants reporting slight changes in vision, but this was in the early stages of their recovery.

Anyway, it's been 10 months since my last dive, I guess to make sure all goes well, I'll have to wait at least until October for the next one

 

[pescador775]

In 1990, I underwent RK in both eyes to correct nearsightedness. Initially, the vision was good but deteriorated within days. Consequently, I underwent several "tune-ups". The surgeon was puzzled and so was I. Vision eventually reached 20/20.The elapsed time from the final procedure to dive was three weeks. I experienced none of the issues which had occurred with hard contacts such as "fog" on surfacing. The general experience diving after RK was excellent. Years later, I read a technical article which explained that weight lifters typically needed more than usual corrective procedures with RK. That's me. Over several years, one eye gradually regressed. In year 2000, to improve the vision in the problem eye, I underwent Lasik. The vision in that eye did not improve immediately but some years went by and acuity gradually improved to 20/20. Over the next few years I did not dive for reasons unrelated. However, recently I have been diving-- breathing NITROX to 100 feet or so, without problems.

 

[sbloomer]

I'm back!!

It's now been 18 months since my first corneal transplant (11 since the second) and the final stitches came out this week. In another 6 weeks or so, I will be able to do my first dive since March 2005!!

Both transplants were a success, and I now have corrected vision between 20/15 and 20/20.

 

[Shadow]

That's good news. Glad it worked out so well for you. Enjoy your dive!

 

[MegDiver792]

as a recent (7/31/19) transplant patient, and this is the only thread that be found on diving with a transplant, much has changed. I asked my surgeon about diving with stitches, he said diving was fine 6 months after surgery, as the stitches are grown over with epithelial tissue and theres no infection risk.. The stitches used today are slightly thinner than a human hair.

The infection risk is as stitches are taken out, as they are taken out slowly over time. Mine could be anywhere from 6 months to 2 years for full removal he said. As he removes a few stitches at a time, I cant dive for a week after stitch removal.

So I'm cleared for recreational diving in 6 months, maybe another couple of months before I can tec dive again .

Just as a note, I required a transplant after my eye got infected by Salt Water. I'd scratched my cornea just abit taking out a contact 3-4 days prior to diving. The eye problem presented itself as a bacterial infection, yet turned out to be fungal. Even my Surgeon was baffled. My transplant was a Hail Mary, as after almost 6 weeks of excruciating pain, and not knowing what the problem was, tons of varied medications and frequencies, I opted for surgery, as the eye was very badly scarred by then. A week after the surgery we finally got the corneal culture back, which indicated fungal infection. All the doctors involved were stumped on that one.

Now I just have to worry about rejection, and eventual cataract surgery from the steriod drops. I just hope by the time 6 months rolls along, my vision improves, cuz its still really bad.