The cornea, the transparent front part of the eye, not only protects the contents of the eye, but is also an important part of the refractive interstitium of the eye. As the saying goes, the eye is the window to the soul, so the cornea is the glass on this window, and it is through this “glass” that we can see the colorful world. Therefore, the health status of the cornea directly affects the clarity of the various scenes we see. Moreover, what we usually call the “black eye” is the iris and pupil seen through the transparent cornea, so the transparency of the cornea is also very important in facial appearance. Keratoconus is one of the three major blindness-causing diseases in the world. According to statistics, in China, there are about 2-3 million blind people who are blind due to monocular and binocular keratoconus, accounting for the second largest number of blindness in the eye, of which more than 80% are farmers. The main treatment for corneal blindness is corneal transplantation. However, due to the limitation of corneal transplantation materials, the number of corneal transplants in China, a large country with corneal blindness, is only about 5000 cases per year, which is far from developed countries and even some developing countries. Therefore, the lack of corneal transplantation materials is a prominent problem in China’s curable corneal blindness at present and for a long time to come, and the development of transplantation surgery is greatly restricted. Therefore, the search for materials that can replace corneas has begun. Amniotic membrane, the inner layer of placental membrane, is the thickest layer of basement membrane in the human body, without blood vessels, nerves and lymphatic vessels, is tough, thin and translucent, and similar in structure to the conjunctiva of the human eye. Amniotic membrane is rich in nutrients and cytokines, which can not only resist infection, prevent scar formation and inhibit neovascularization, but also stimulate cell differentiation and prevent apoptosis, so it can be said that amniotic membrane has the miraculous function of “youthfulness and longevity” of cells. For this reason, Davis used it as a skin material in plastic surgery as early as 1910. In 1913, Strn and Sabella used amniotic membrane to repair burn wounds with success. The use of amniotic membrane in ophthalmology dates back to the 1940s, when Roth used fresh amniotic membrane to repair the conjunctiva in 1940 to treat lid bulb adhesions, which failed due to the immaturity of the technique. In 1946, Sorsby again used amniotic membrane in the treatment of ocular burns, a successful procedure that did not attract much attention at the time. This proved that amniotic membrane is an ideal material for transplantation. It was not until 1995, when Kim and Tseng developed a new method of amniotic membrane preservation and successfully used the preserved amniotic membrane in rabbit corneal reconstruction, that a new and in-depth understanding of the biological properties of amniotic membrane began to emerge and it became increasingly popular among ophthalmologists. The use of amniotic membrane in ocular surface diseases is now widely practiced in the ophthalmic community worldwide, and the results of various research studies have been fruitful. Studies have shown that amniotic membrane has good toughness and tension resistance, is rich in bioactive factors, has good histocompatibility, and can degrade slowly on its own, which is incomparable to any biosynthetic material. The ophthalmology department of Wuhan Union Medical College Hospital has taken the lead in the application of amniotic membrane in ophthalmology in Hubei Province, and successfully applied amniotic membrane transplantation in pterygium excision, conjunctival defect repair, reconstruction of conjunctival sac stenosis, especially in the treatment of corneal ulcer and large vesicular keratopathy, etc., so that the majority of patients can see again, and achieved good results. Its application in pterygium surgery was found to have anti-recurrence effect; in prolonged viral keratitis, it was found to promote corneal repair and biocorneal contact lens; in anti-glaucoma surgery, it was found to have anti-fiber proliferation and anti-scarring effect; in immune ocular surface diseases, it was found to have anti-inflammatory effect, and in large vesicular keratopathy, it was found to relieve pain and alleviate patient pain …… We also pioneered the use of multilayer amniotic membrane transplantation for corneal perforation, which has saved several eyes on the verge of blindness, and its technology has reached a world leading level. Corneal perforation is the most serious complication of diseases such as corneal ulcers. Since the integrity of the eye is destroyed, if corneal transplantation is not done in time for repair, various microorganisms can easily take advantage of the situation and cause serious intraocular infections. Moreover, perforation of the eye may also induce a disease called sympathetic uveitis, which affects the healthy contralateral eye and causes vision loss. With a shortage of corneal transplant donors, doctors are at their wits’ end when it comes to patients with corneal perforation, and ultimately have to choose to remove the eye to preserve the only remaining healthy eye. Professor Zhang Mingchang is a specialist in keratoconus and has been dedicated to the study of keratoconus for many years. In the course of treating patients, he was saddened to discover that the eye is not only a visual organ, but also plays an important role in maintaining one’s appearance. Eye removal not only causes physical damage to the patient’s body, but also causes great damage to their mind. Other than corneal transplantation, is there a way to save the perforated eye from being removed? After years of careful research, Professor Zhang pioneered the use of amniotic membrane, which is close to the composition of the cornea, to cover the cornea in multiple layers, firmly placing a “patch” over the hole. This method may seem simple, but it effectively maintains the integrity of the eye wall and avoids serious complications, thus preserving the perforated eye. Since this technique was introduced in 2004, we have treated dozens of patients with perforated eyes, most of whom have achieved good results, some of whom have not only preserved their eyes, but have even regained some of their vision and are able to live and work normally. In addition, we have innovatively applied it to springtime khat conjunctivitis and antiglaucoma surgery. Spring cicatricial conjunctivitis is an allergic disease, so named because of its high incidence in spring. Patients are mostly children, and, more often than not, male children. During an attack, the eyes itch unbearably and are accompanied by redness, tearing and eye pain. Moreover, the disease is not easily cured and is prone to recurrent attacks. Over time, the conjunctiva gradually thickens and turns waxy yellow, causing great pain to the patient and affecting the physical and mental development and learning of the affected child. We have used amniotic membrane in the surgery of spring cicatricial conjunctivitis, replacing part of the unhealthy conjunctiva with amniotic membrane, which greatly reduces the recurrence rate of the disease. In addition, amniotic membrane plays an important role in anti-glaucoma surgery, as well. After traditional anti-glaucoma surgery, the filtration tract is prone to scarring, which affects the surgical outcome. The amniotic membrane, which has anti-scarring properties, makes up for this shortcoming and improves the success rate of surgery, especially in refractory glaucoma surgery, where it also plays an important role.