Generally there are no dietary or lifestyle conditions that can cause need for corneal transplant unless one of course partakes in extreme sports where you can sustain an injury from trauma. Dry eyes can lead to corneal transplant only if very severe and if the dry eyes is caused by limbal stem cell deficiency. As with all transplants there is a risk of rejection even in the long term but these rates have been reduced with the new forms of transplant procedures.

Good question. Unlike kidney we don’t need to do matching for the majority of transplants performed, however unfortunately not every cornea donated can be used since they have to undergo strict tests to assess the cell viability or healthiness of the donated tissue and the donors themselves will have to undergo microbiology testing to ensure that there is no risk of transmission of infection from the donor to recipient.

The main risk with corneal transplant is graft rejection but of course as with any surgical procedure there is always risk of infection especially in the early postoperative phase as well as raised pressure in the eye in the long term. Apart from preventing injury during sports e.g the use of goggles during badminton and squash there is no other conclusive evidence by dietary methods. Flax seed oil has been shown to help the tear film and taking antioxidants can also keep your eyes generally healthy