Westchester Medical Center Ophthalmologic Surgeon, Dr. Gerald W. Zaidman, Performs 3,000th Corneal Transplant

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Westchester Medical Center Surgeon performs 3,000th Corneal Transplant

3,000^th Corneal Transplant performed on three year old in December

Westchester Medical Center recently announced that Ophthalmologic Surgeon, Dr. Gerald W. Zaidman, Director of the Department of Ophthalmology at Westchester Medical Center has performed his 3,000^th corneal transplant procedure at the medical center earlier this week. 

Dr. Zaidman, a nationally recognized Ophthalmologic Surgeon and authority on pediatric corneal transplants, performed the complex procedure on December 1^st on a three year old girl from Bayside, NY who was born with a dermoid cyst on her cornea.

“Sight, through donated corneas is a very generous gift.  With the help of the New York Eye Bank for Sight Restoration we have been able to provide the gift of sight to many people over the years, said Dr. Zaidman.  “We also have a very dedicated and experienced team of doctors, nurses, technicians and transplant coordinators here at Westchester Medical Center, which is why we have such outstanding results with both pediatric and adult cornea transplants.”

The cornea is the clear front window of the eye that covers the colored iris and the pupil.  Light is focused by the cornea and lens allowing us to see clearly.  The surgeon operates while looking through a microscope at the patient's eye. The complex microsurgical procedure is even more difficult on an eye that has not reached its full size; as a result most corneal specialists won't operate on children

If the cornea is injured or damaged, it may become swollen or scarred, and its clarity may be lost. Scars, swelling, or an irregular shape can cause the cornea to distort light, resulting in glare, blurred vision and in some cases blindness all of which may require a corneal transplant.  For most patients this can be performed on an outpatient basis.  In an operating room, under anesthesia, an ophthalmologist removes the damaged or diseased cornea and replaces it with a clear donor cornea which is sewn into place. 

Dr. Zaidman and his team perform about 6-7% of all pediatric cornea transplants in the United States.   “Among thousands of corneal specialists in the country, only a few hundred of us routinely perform pediatric corneal transplants,” added Dr. Zaidman.

The first successful cornea transplant took place in 1905 making it the first solid tissue transplant ever. 

Spanning every adult and pediatric medical specialty, Westchester Medical Center serves as a lifeline to the more than 3.5 million people in the Hudson Valley region and beyond.  Well-known for its advanced medical care in trauma and burn, heart, cancer, transplant, neuroscience and pediatrics, community hospitals within a 5,000-square-mile range send their most difficult cases to this advanced-care, academic medical center.  At Westchester Medical Center, each year more than 120,000 patients are cared for in every medical specialty through its University Hospital, the 118-bed Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital—home to the region’s only Level IV NICU and PICU—the Joel A. Halpern Regional Trauma Center and the region's only Burn Center and the only full-service 24/7 cardiac center, including heart transplant, Mechanical Circulatory Support and so much more.  With more than 900 attending physicians and 3,300 healthcare professionals, Westchester Medical Center is the only facility capable of providing immediate lifesaving advanced care between New York City and Albany.

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