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CLINICAL RESEARCH IN OCULAR INFECTIOUS DISEASE AND CORNEAL AND REFRACTIVE SURGERY - David H. Hwang, M.D.
Ocular Infectious Disease
Dr. Hwang and colleagues were among the first to report the United States outbreak of Fusarium keratitis in soft contact lens wearers using ReNu MoistureLoc multipurpose contact lens solutions. His laboratory is actively pursuing studies to elucidate the underlying mechanisms for failure of these solutions to exert adequate antimicrobial activity under various real-world conditions.
Corneal and Refractive Surgery
Dr. Hwang is active in the development and introduction, and clinical research evaluation of innovative surgical techniques and instruments for use in keratoplasty, refractive surgery, and other types of anterior segment surgery. These include endokeratoplasty, complex descemetopexy, deep anterior lamellar keratoplasty, permanent keratoprosthesis implantation, and intracorneal ring segment surgery. He is collaborating in the development of nanoknife instrumentation for novel anterior segment surgical applications. Dr. Hwang has also developed a “no ultrasound” technique for phacoemulsification that is the subject of an ongoing prospective clinical evaluation.
Dr. Hwang has a longstanding interest in experimental corneal endothelial cell transplantation and has built on this interest by launching an active clinical endokeratoplasty program at UCSF. A prospective evaluation is underway of the application of endokeratoplasty techniques to the management of high-risk eyes with complex and difficult anterior segment pathology. Morphometric analysis using anterior segment optical coherence tomography is being conducted on eyes that have undergone endokeratoplasty to better understand potential predictive factors influencing graft centration, thickness, and survival. Ongoing clinical research into surgical endokeratoplasty techniques will provide the necessary groundwork for advancing closer to clinical application of the use of bioengineered corneal endothelial implants, which have been the product of a multi-year research and development effort by Dr. Hwang and coworkers.
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