Letter to Editor
Letter to Editor for Inaugural Issue Clinics in Surgery
Perry S. Binder*
Department of Ophthalmology, University of California, USA
*Corresponding author: Perry S. Binder, Department of Ophthalmology, Gavin Herbert Eye Institute, University of California, Irvine, California, USA
Published: 09 Feb, 2017
Cite this article as: Binder PS. Letter to Editor for Inaugural
Issue Clinics in Surgery. Clin Surg.
2017; 2: 1297.
Letter to Editor
I am currently serving in two capacities. I am a Medical Monitor for Stroma, Inc., a startup
company whose goal is the safe and predictable use a special computerized laser to lighten the iris
color uniformly by removing the anterior monolayer of pigment from the iris surface. We have
performed the basic laboratory and animal studies and limited, segmented treatment of normal
human irides and are now involved in the first clinical studies treating the full 360 degrees of the
human iris. We are not affecting the posterior pigment layer that is responsible for pigmentary
glaucoma. Active iris tracking in X, Y, and the Z meridians, with a very small depth of focus reduces
risk(s) to anterior segment structures.
Working with my Fellow from 1988 and 1992, Dr. Gerritt Melles of the Netherlands, we are
performing different studies of the procedure known as DMEK (Descemet’s membrane Endothelial
Keratoplasty). We are studying histologic specimens from pathologic cases and from recipients who
have died years following a successful procedure to understand how the eye tolerates the procedure
as well as what happen to the transplanted endothelium. In addition, Dr. Melles has developed
a new procedure termed hemi-DMEK where one divides a donor corneal stromal/endothelial
complex specimen in half and then transplants each half into two different recipients. Using
OCT and confocal microscopy and histopathologic specimens, we are assessing the outcomes to
determine the potential world-wide application of this technique which would double the number
of potential recipients from one donor. We have to date submitted three manuscripts that support
these procedures.