A cornea transplant is an operation to remove all or part of a damaged cornea and replace it with healthy donor tissue. A cornea transplant is often referred to as keratoplasty or a corneal graft. It can be used to improve sight, relieve pain and treat severe infection or damage.
During a full-thickness cornea transplant (penetrating keratoplasty), a circular disk-shaped portion of your cornea is removed and replaced with a similarly sized portion of cornea from a donor. A cornea transplant (keratoplasty) is a surgical procedure to replace part of your cornea with corneal tissue from a donor.
Generally speaking, it can take up to a year to fully recover from a corneal transplant. However, most people are back to their normal routines within one to two weeks with the exception of heavy lifting. It's advised to wait at least four weeks before doing any heavy lifting, or longer if your doctor advises it.
Most of the time, these surgeries are done as outpatient procedures under local anesthesia. This means you'll be awake but woozy, the area is numb, and you'll be able to go home the same day. Your doctor will do the entire surgery while looking through a microscope. It typically takes 30 minutes to an hour.