University Hospital Cruces (Hospital Universitario Cruces), Spain

SPAIN

The OSI Ezkerraldea Enkarterri Cruces is an Integrated Services Organization that includes 11 Primary Care Units (made up of 29 Health Centers) and the University Hospital of Cruces. This tertiary hospital provides health assistance as a reference center inside and outside the Basque Country (Spain).

In 2008, the Spanish Ministry of Health designated the Department of Ophthalmology of University Hospital of Cruces as a National Reference Center (CSUR) for the Complex Reconstruction of the Ocular Surface and Keratoprosthesis. Since then, we admit patients from all over the national geography to be treated for severe corneal-conjunctival pathologies (chemical burns, autoimmune syndromes, etc.).

The Cornea and Ocular Surface Section of this Department is a pioneer in the introduction of new surgical techniques: amniotic membrane transplantation (2000), anterior lamelar corneal transplant surgery (2003), posterior corneal transplantation or endothelial surgery, both DSAEK (2006) and DMEK (2008). In addition, we perform complex reconstructions of the ocular surface using artificial corneas (keratoprosthesis) since 2006, being the Centre that has implanted most of the keratoprostheses in the Spanish National Health System.

The aim of this Section is to continue providing comprehensive and personalized assistance of the highest quality from both human and technical and scientific points of view.

In addition to the patient care function, the medical staff of the Cornea Section of Cruces University Hospital carries out teaching and research work. We receive residents of Ophthalmology and doctors from all over Spain for their specific training in this discipline. The Cornea section staff has also made multiple oral communications in national and international meetings, publishes both clinical and research papers in international journals of high impact factor. We maintain, for more than the last ten years, two lines of research, in association with the Department of Cell Biology and Histology of the School of Medicine of the University of the Basque Country (UPV / EHU), related to Corneal Reepithelialization and Stem Cell Expansion of the sclerocorneal limbus, participating, since its foundation, in the Begiker Ophthalmological Research Group of the BioCruces Research Institute.

Picture : Zarateman