Vincenzo SARNICOLA, MD
Italy

Dr. Vincenzo Sarnicola is the Director of the Clinica degli Occhi Sarnicola (“Sarnicola Eye Center”) in Grosseto, Italy, since 1998. He has been the Chief of the Ophthalmology Department of the Misericordia Hospital in Grosseto (Italy) for 20 years (1994-2014).

He worked as Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Siena (Italy) from 1990 to 2015. He served as Visiting Professor at Duke University (Durham, USA), at Medipol University (Istanbul, Turkey) and at Tbilisi State Medical University (Georgia).

Dr. Sarnicola served as the first President, Founder, and open-endedly Board Member of Eucornea.

He is the Founder and President of S.I.C.S.S.O. (International Society of Cornea Stem Cell and Ocular Surface) since 2002.

He also served as Board Member of SOI (“Italian Ophthalmology Society”), Cornea Society, and the AAO International Committee. He is now Board Member of SISO (“Italian Society of Ophthalmological Science”) 

He was also a Member of the “Cornea and External Disease Subcommittee” of the Annual Meeting Program of the AAO and Member of the Planning Committee of the VII World Cornea Congress.

Dr. Sarnicola interests include Keratoplasty, Cataract Surgery, Ocular Surface Transplantation, Refractive Surgery, Glaucoma, and Strabismus.

He has a national and international reputation for his expertise in the field of Cornea and External Disease, particularly in lamellar keratoplasty. He has performed 34 live surgeries (including DMEK and DALK during WOC in 2018) and directed instructional courses about DALK at ASCRS, ESCRS, and AAO annual meetings since 2005.

He designed dedicated instruments for DALK and DMEK surgeries and he is the author of several publications. He published one of the largest series (over 600 eyes) of DALK procedures with a 10-year follow-up and two innovative surgical techniques ("Cannula Big Bubble" DALK and "Airviscobubble" DALK). He has also proposed a new indication for DALK as an early surgical approach to treat acanthamoeba and fungal keratitis poorly responsive to medical treatment. Known for his ability of managing DALK intraoperative Descemet membrane ruptures, he wrote several book chapters, including one in the Mannis-Holland “Cornea” book entitled “Recovery techniques in DALK”.

He was awarded with the Achievement Award from AAO and other 18 prizes, including receiving a star in the “walk of fame” dedicated to ophthalmologists of the Sorocaba Eye Bank in Brazil and the XXI Edition of the International Award for Medicine “Premio VEXILLVM Giuseppe Sciacca” at the Vatican City for having performed the execution of the first auto-transplant of the entire bulbar ocular surface.

He has organized and participated in 9 humanitarian missions in the third world performing more than 500 surgical procedures. As President of S.I.C.S.S.O., in 2018 he help to create the S.I.C.S.S.O. Corneal Transplant Foundation for Developing Countries, aiming to spread the newest and better lamellar techniques, by mentoring and tutoring surgeons who are in a learning curve phase.