The LVPEI Eye Bank Network distributed 40 per cent of the corneas for sight-restoring corneal transplant surgeries performed across the country last year.
“LVPEI is contributing phenomenally towards ensuring the availability of quality donor tissues. We have now expanded the scope of our activities beyond our network and have partnered with The Hans Foundation to set up eye banks in other states,’’ Prashant Garg, Head, Eye Banking Services, L V Prasad Eye Institute, said in a release.
Two of these eye banks have been set up in Rishikesh and Guwahati. Within two years, the eye bank at Rishikesh was able to supply 194 corneas for transplantation.
LVPEI has been performing over 2,000 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, which possibly is the highest at a single institute anywhere in the world.
The cornea collection numbers stood at 107,751 up until December 2020, LVPEI said in a release.