LV Prasad Eye Institute in Hyderabad sets world record with 50,000 corneal transplants

Hyderabad: The Shantilal Shanghvi Cornea Institute - at the LV Prasad eye Institute here has achieved the distinction of performing the highest number of corneal transplants ever by any institution in the world, with over 50,000 being performed since its inception in 1987.

A press release from the premier eye care institute said as a global resource centre, the SSCI was the first of the Institutes of Excellence conceived at LVPEI which works to impact all the key causes and forms of corneal impairment and blindness in the world.

It is a major resource for capacity building and development of cornea care facilities across the world. It operates one of the largest cornea services in the world and makes a sizable contribution to the quality of care and access and is a leader in high quality training programmes and research, it said.

Spread across southern and eastern India, the four eye banks (Ramayamma International Eye Bank – Hyderabad, Mohsin Eye Bank – Visakhapatnam, Drushti Daan Eye Bank – Bhubaneswar, TKEB – Vijayawada) currently receive a donation of over 12,000 corneas every year.

Since its inception in 1989, the Ramayamma International Eye Bank (the biggest in Asia-Pacific region) has produced over 5,10,000 vials of corneal preservation medium (the MK medium) and harvested over 1,29,500 corneas.

Founder-Chairman of LVPEI Dr Gullapalli N Rao said India needs at least 1,00,000 corneal transplants, but is able to do only 30,000 in a year.

“We could perform 50,000 corneal transplants in the 37 years of the Institute’s existence. No other institute has done as many transplants in the world as of now,” he said.