Pune collects 767 corneas from banks

Even as the world observes World Blind Day on Saturday, the District Blindness Control Society (DBCS), Pune, has reported a collection of 767 corneas from eye banks across the city during April-September 2011.

With an annual target of 1,200 cornea collections, the society has achieved 61% of its annual target in six months. However, ophthalmologists have pointed out that medico-legal procedures have been hindering the eyeball donation process.

Dr SV Ambekar, head of ophthalmology department at Sassoon General Hospital, said that even if relatives are willing to donate a person's eyes, the corneas cannot be harvested if the cause of death is pending.

Dr DB Khemkar, district ophthalmic surgeon, told DNA on Friday that the collection of 767 cornea collections was not enough as only 33% of those collected can be used. "Of the 767 corneas, only 362 were used for keratoplasty or corneal transplant. That is because the quality of eyeballs retrieved is not always very good," Khemkar said.

Ambekar said, "We have to remove the corneas within 6 hours. But we have to know the cause of death before harvesting the corneas. Usually, a lot of young people die in accidents and their families are willing to donate eyeballs, but a lot of medico-legal procedures — including post-mortem — cause delays."

Senior eye surgeon at HV Desai Eye hospital, Dr Rahul Deshpande, said that despite several attempts, medico-legal hurdles have remained. "Sometimes relatives also forget to fill the cause of death in the form for eye donations due to their grief, which prevents us from collecting the corneas."

And if the deceased had been suffering from certain diseases, his/her corneas cannot be used. If the cause of death is not mentioned in the death certificate, we cannot collect good eyes even if people are willing to donate," he said.

According to Khemkar, of the 16 listed eye banks in the city, five eye banks — HV Desai Eye Hospital, Ruby Hall Clinic, Deenanath Mangeshkar Hospital, National Institute of Ophthalmology and Jan Kalyan Bank — collected the maximum corneas.