Data for 2024-25 reveals that 51,249 corneas were donated in India, which met just a quarter of the projected need of around 1,00,000 corneas annually. The reason for this is a utilisation rate of 50% at best, with actual transplants performed ranging only between 25,000 to 30,000.
Doctors at the Dr. Rajendra Prasad Centre for Ophthalmic Sciences (RPC), AIIMS Delhi, along with engineers from IIT Delhi, are testing a way to recycle discarded donor corneas using a bioengineered graft. it does point toward a future where less of what is donated ends up being discarded While the trials are still at a very early stage.
Because of low cell counts or minor damage, can be stripped of living cells and turned into a reusable structural scaffold for patients with surface-level corneal damage, corneas that fail transplant standards,.
As fresher corneal tissue survives testing and transplant better, the next focus must be on reducing the time between death and retrieval, and retrieval and preservation. Hospital Cornea Retrieval Programmes, where hospitals proactively notify eye banks of deaths and trained counsellors approach grieving families, help to reduce this time factor and outperform voluntary home collections. Expanding that model into more hospitals, rather than relying on a push only during Eye Donation Fortnight, will help to increase the corneal utilisation rate. Quality assurance (QA) programmes at eye banks will also help in effectively reducing the discard rate, even with an increase in the volume of donated corneas. we must also take care of the delivery with better storage chemistry, faster hospital protocols, and a database that shows, in real time, exactly which cornea is about to run out of time, who needs it and where. (Dr While we address the donation aspect with awareness and educating the people on the benefits of organ donation. Suvira Jain is medical director, ASG Hospital Limited, Worli, Mumbai. [email protected])
A study showed that the discard rate came down from around 40% to 30% with better donor acquisition processes and improvement in tissue recovery due to effective compliance with quality assurance programmes.
