To support our mission, donations are essential to expand the education of surgeons in diagnosing and treating severe ocular surface disease and provide long-term management for patients with complex ocular surface disease.
Blindness can result from many causes—ranging from disease to injury—and may occur gradually or without warning. Its impact on quality of life is profound, often limiting independence and self-sufficiency. We rely on our vision not only to care for ourselves and engage in work, but also to connect with the world around us. Sight allows us to recognize loved ones, navigate our environment, and perform even the most basic daily tasks. When vision is lost, the need for support and accommodations becomes essential to everyday living.
It is estimated that 60,000 people are born with birth defects that cause progressive blindness due to ocular surface failure and another 100,000 people will have ocular injuries or medical illnesses the progress to sever ocular surface disease. Standard corneal transplantation fails to restore vision due to the lack of a healthy ocular surface. Therefore, techniques of ocular surface stem cell transplantation have been developed to address the failed ocular surface thus allowing sight to be restored.
Dr. Holland has developed The Cincinnati Protocol™, which is a comprehensive approach to patient management and surgical techniques for ocular surface transplantation to effectively restore vision in these patients.
