It can also be attributable to chemotherapy or to a genetic or autoimmune disease. Severe ocular surface disease can result from a number of causes but is generally due to contact with chemicals or extreme heat and tends to occur in young adults. Holland chose the Gavin Herbert Eye Institute as the first of 5 centers in the United States that will perform the transplant to expandits availability and train as many surgeons as possible in its execution. UCI Healthboasts the largest kidney transplant program in Orange County, California, and has the expertise and resources to support the complex care needs of patients waiting for an ocular stem cell transplant, Farid pointed out. The transplant has been successful, she explained, because Holland leveraged immunosuppressant therapy based on kidney transplant protocols at UCI Health to keep the body from attacking the newly implanted cells.
Farid began training to perform the procedure more than 10 years ago and will now impart her knowledge to fellow surgeons at UCI Health. Its new Severe Ocular Surface Disease Program of Excellence is led by cornea specialist Marjan Farid, MD, director of cornea, cataract, and refractive surgery and professor of ophthalmology at the University of California, Irvine School of Medicine.įarid is the first surgeon trained to perform this complex procedure by Edward Holland, MD, a Cincinnati ophthalmologist and head of the Holland Foundation for Sight Restoration, who pioneered the procedure and has restored sight to hundreds of patients with severe ocular surface damage.
The Gavin Herbert Eye Institute of UCI Health is the second medical institution in the country to offer stem cell transplants to patients with severe eye surface damage.
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