General theory of tissue swelling with application to the corneal stroma

Abstract

Equations describing the time course of swelling in a very general system are derived and are used to study the free swelling of corneal stroma. An integral solution is obtained, which demonstrates how the swelling rate depends on swelling pressure and tissue permeability at the space-average stromal hydration, and which can be integrated by quadrature to give tissue hydration as a function of time. Only limited comparisons of predicted stromal swelling curves with experimental results can be made, and these are inconclusive. Experiments to test the theory more severely are suggested.