History of the artificial cornea

Abstract

The concept of an artificial cornea for transplantation predates work with corneal tissue transplants. Guillaume Pellier de Quengsy described the first known design for a keratoprosthesis in 1789. In his original paper, he asks the question, “would it not be possible to implant an artificial cornea instead of the natural one when one is certain that the loss of vision comes from the opacity of this tunic? This will be easy to verify. Here is the operation one could attempt… Use a clear, thin piece of glass…convex outside, with the diameter of the cornea, place it inside a small circle of silver… Around the exterior circle, have a groove made proportional to the thickness of the natural cornea so that the sclera can exactly adapt to it by secreting new juices….â€