Over the previous 58 years, the Nationwide Eye Financial institution on the RP Centre has obtained 32,000 cornea donations.
Because of cutting-edge know-how and a devoted group of specialists, one cornea can now be transplanted to learn three separate sufferers.
In a exceptional growth on the RP Centre for Ophthalmic Sciences, AIIMS New Delhi, a single eye donation is now enabling imaginative and prescient restoration for as much as six eyes (three pairs). This groundbreaking development in customised corneal transplantation highlights the facility of contemporary medical know-how and experience.
Historically, eye donations have been essential in restoring sight to people affected by imaginative and prescient loss. Nonetheless, at AIIMS’s RP Centre, modern strategies are revolutionising this course of. Because of cutting-edge know-how and a devoted group of specialists, one cornea can now be transplanted to learn three separate sufferers.
In alignment with Nationwide Eye Donation Fortnight, a nationwide marketing campaign geared toward boosting cornea donations to fight blindness, the RP Centre is main the best way on this transformative strategy. Professor Dr Radhika Tandon and Dr Tushar Agarwal from AIIMS emphasise that corneal tissue, a significant part of the attention, might be efficiently transplanted from donors to sufferers in want. Since eye donations can solely happen posthumously, there’s a essential must encourage extra individuals to contemplate this life-changing reward.
This new method, which permits one cornea to serve a number of sufferers, gives hope and vital reduction to these battling blindness. The RP Centre’s pioneering work represents a significant leap ahead in ophthalmic science and affected person care.
What’s a Customised Corneal Transplant?
A customized corneal transplant is a process the place solely the diseased layer of the cornea is changed, moderately than the complete cornea. When a affected person has a situation affecting a particular layer of their cornea, this layer is eliminated and changed with an identical layer from a donor cornea.
Advantages of a Customised Corneal Transplant
On the RP Centre of AIIMS, the idea of a ‘single donor, a number of recipients’ is being employed. This system maximises using donor tissue. The donor cornea is split into its six distinct layers, permitting totally different layers for use for various sufferers. Consequently, one cornea can doubtlessly profit a number of people. Moreover, by changing solely the affected layer moderately than the entire cornea, the restoration time for sufferers is considerably lowered, resulting in faster therapeutic.
AIIMS Achieves File in Corneal Transplants
Over the previous 58 years, the Nationwide Eye Financial institution on the RP Centre has obtained 32,000 cornea donations, with 23,000 sufferers having had their sight restored via these transplants. This 12 months alone, 2,000 corneas have been donated, marking the best quantity previously three years following the disruptions attributable to COVID-19. Traditionally, AIIMS RP Centre has performed round 1,000 corneal transplant surgical procedures yearly, however within the 2023-24 interval, a file 1,703 corneal transplants have been carried out.
Nationwide Eye Financial institution Creating a Community
Dr Radhika Tandon introduced that AIIMS’ Nationwide Eye Financial institution is establishing a community to reinforce cornea assortment by integrating all authorities hospitals throughout Delhi-NCR. This initiative additionally consists of preparations to make sure corneal tissue is effectively transported to surgeons.
Encouraging Cornea Donations
Dr Tandon and Dr Tushar Agarwal emphasise that there isn’t a age restriction for eye donation. Corneas might be donated by anybody from younger kids to people as much as 99 years outdated. Public consciousness is essential for this trigger. Within the occasion of a pure dying or a dying throughout hospital remedy, households can contact the attention financial institution or the closest hospital to facilitate cornea donation.
