What is the use of plexiglass in medical treatment?

Plexiglass is a popular name, abbreviated as PMMA. The chemical name of this polymer transparent material is polymethyl methacrylate, which is a polymer compound polymerized from methyl methacrylate. It is an important thermoplastic developed earlier. There is also a wonderful use of plexiglass in medicine, which is to make artificial cornea. If the transparent cornea of the human eye is covered with an opaque substance, light cannot enter the eye. This is blindness caused by leukoplakia of the whole cornea, which cannot be treated with drugs. Therefore, medical scientists imagine to replace the cornea covered with white spots with artificial cornea. The so-called artificial cornea is made of a transparent material with a diameter of only a few millimeters, and then a small hole is drilled in the cornea of the human eye to fix the lens column on the cornea, and the light enters the eye through the lens column, so that the human eye can see the light again. As early as 177 1 year, ophthalmologists made columns of optical glass and implanted them in the cornea, but they failed. Later, it took only half a year to replace the optical glass with crystal, which failed. In World War II, when some planes crashed, the cockpit cover made of plexiglass was blown off, and the pilot's eyes were embedded with plexiglass fragments. After many years, although these fragments were not taken out, they did not further cause inflammation or other adverse reactions in human eyes. This accident shows that plexiglass has good compatibility with human tissues. At the same time, it also inspires ophthalmologists to make artificial cornea with plexiglass, which has good light transmittance, stable chemical properties, no toxicity to human body, easy processing into the required shape and long-term compatibility with human eyes. Plexiglass artificial cornea has been widely used in clinic.