Fuch's, Cataract, Macular Pucker and Macular degeneration

[trissha217]

I am 58 with a history of early Fuch's dystrophy. I come from a very large family, no previous family history of Fuch's. I had Cataract surgery in October followed by a Corneal transplant in January.  Vision in right eye went from 20/200 to 20/70 or 20/50 corrected, but I could not read at this correction. I felt my eyesight should be better by this time (4 months later) and so did the Dr.  My Fuchs was gone, transplant was intact and healed well.  He decided to see if there was a Macular Pucker and did an OCT an there it was.  He sent me to his colleague to evaluate further. He said I did in fact have a Macular Pucker and I also had the beginnings of Macular degeneration. He said it was early in the disease and he does not usually give the vitamins at this time but since my mother had dry macular degeneration as well as 2 cousins and an aunt had the wet version, I had a very strong family history and should begin sooner.  What is the likelihood of having all these issues. I am trying to be proactive because with Fuchs, you never know when the other eye will begin to have problems and I need to be able to see and work for a very long time.

[JohnHaganMD]

Okay so you didn't have a full thickness corneal transplant and did have a DSAEK (same as DSEK).  West of luck and glad things have gone well so far. Macular puckers are more common in smokers, diabetics, hypertensives, and obesity. Make sure you live a healthy lifestyle to protect your eyes from poor habits.

[JohnHaganMD]

Where do you live? In state of the art ophthalmology corneal transplants are not done anymore. Instead the diseased layer of the cornea (endothelium) is removed and the same layer transplanted from a healthy deceased donor. The procedure is called DSAEK.  If you need anything done to your other eye you should try and have that done.  If possible I would suggest a second opinion on your retina/macula from a different retina eye MD and see a cornea specialist about both your Fuch's eye and your corneal transplant eye and to confirm about the vast superiority of DSAEK over a full thickness corneal transplant.

[trissha217]

I live in New York, actually on Long Island. After the cataract surgery and DSEK, I was feeling a little down about my poor vision. My corneal specialist said the Fuchs eye was healed and all evidence of Fuchs was gone. He expected better vision as well.  OCT revealed macular pucker.  I Just had macular pucker surgery yesterday and today I am seeing much better than I did prior to surgery. Prior to surgery I had 20/50 Vision although I could not read anything out of my right eye. This morning it was 20/30... I am elated. I am hoping since this was 24 hours post surgery, in a few weeks or months it will be even better.