LVPEI Eye Bank distributed 40 per cent of corneas in India

The institute also plans on expanding the scope of their activities beyond the network and has partnered for setting up eye banks in other states.

Hyderabad: Nearly 40 per cent of the corneas distributed throughout India for sight-restoring corneal transplant surgeries last year were provided by the LV Prasad Eye Institute (LVPEI) Network Eye Banks.

Since its inception in 1989, the LVPEI eye bank network has achieved many milestones, a press release said adding that it has distributed 61,063 corneas, of which 50,000 (82 per cent) are by the Ramayamma International Eye Bank (RIEB) at LVPEI’s Hyderabad campus. The Institute also has eye bank facilities at its campuses in Bhubaneswar, Visakhapatnam and Vijayawada.

Dr Prashant Garg, Head, Eye Banking Services, LVPEI, said, “Our goal is to ensure that the availability of quality corneal tissue does not remain a barrier in tackling corneal blindness.  Around 1.1 million Indians suffer from corneal blindness. Corneal transplantation, using healthy corneas donated by individuals upon their death, is the only known cure for corneal blindness. LVPEI is contributing phenomenally towards ensuring the availability of quality donor tissues.”

The institute also plans on expanding the scope of their activities beyond the network and has partnered for setting up eye banks in other states.

LVPEI has consistently performed over 2000 corneal transplant surgeries every year for the past several years. So far, over 38,655 corneal transplant surgeries (across the network) have been performed at the institute, the press release said.

“We express our sincere thanks to our cornea donor families, partner hospitals and eye donation centres, our collaborators and funders who have helped us in establishing such a robust eye banking facility,” said Dr Garg.

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