Transplantation limbus

A TK does not provide any LSC therefore, it does not suffice to treat extended Umbal ischemia. It must be coupled with a limbus transplantation [46]. 

A TK can be practiced in the same operatory step as a limbus allograft. The intervention begins with a Um-bal peritectomy, followed by the TK [47]. However, the epithelial cicatrization and the comeal transparency are better when the TK is secondarily realized (from 1 to 13 months). The endothelial rejection is less important too 0% against 53% for a transplantation occurring in the first month [18]. 

Compared to the amount of research that has been invested in the study of SM skin injury, the eye has received relatively little attention during the last 20-30 years. The eye is, however, a target tissue that has a high potential for successful intervention against SM. There has been some use of comeal transplantation after mustard gas injury however, there is a high risk for transplant rejection due to inflammation and vascularization of the cornea. Despite this, keratoplasty has been used successfully in some blinded Iraq-Iran conflict veterans (Richter et al., 2006). It is likely to be one of the more successful techniques to restore vision to severely exposed individuals, especially if the limbus is also transplanted. This is needed to provide an additional supply of comeal epithelial stem cells, which become depleted over the years of trying to heal the SM latent wounds. 

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