Importance of ‘Eye Bank’ amplified by visiting Ophthalmologist

Mar 23, 2014 News

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The possibility of Guyana introducing an Eye Bank, a facility that retrieves and stores eyes for cornea transplant and research, is certainly not out of reach.  In fact, such a realisation could be possible within a year, according to veteran Ophthalmologist, Stephen G. Waller, who just last week, highlighted the importance of having such a facility in place when he facilitated a Continuing Medical Education (CME) session at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC).

During that forum, Dr Waller disclosed that while Donation Laws and certification will have to be put in place, Government must also have the “political will” to take such a decision. And in doing so he is convinced that Government will first have to see the value that could be made available to the citizenry with such a facility.
Dr Waller is of the firm belief that putting such a crucial system in place will not only be a plus for the Guyanese people but there is also a possibility that the entire Caribbean could benefit from an Eye Bank in Guyana.
“I think it could be a win-win situation for everybody and yet not cost a lot of money to the Guyanese people…You can get a lot of blind people back on the streets and even working again,” said a confident Dr Waller.
Instead of simply burying persons with their corneas intact, Dr Waller is convinced that they could be stored by an Eye Bank, similar to what is done for other transplanted organs, with the view of helping those who may have various visual impairments.  However, engaging the process of cornea transplant should never be allowed without first thoroughly analysing and fully knowing the medial history of the donors, Dr Waller insisted.
“There are many developing countries that already have Eye Banks running wonderfully…Sri Lanka is an example I have talked about, but there are many models out there that Guyana could look to for how to do it well,” disclosed the Associate Professor at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in the United States.
The CME, which saw Dr Waller sharing extensive eye transplantation information to the local professionals, was in fact a collaborative move between the public hospital and the privately-operated Dr Balwant Singh Hospital.
In fact Dr Waller’s visit was funded by New York-based Philanthropist, George Subraj, who has for a number of years directed substantial financial support towards health care here. He has been instrumental in bringing experts the likes of Dr Rahul Jindal, who had first collaborated with the public hospital and subsequently the Dr Balwant Singh Hospital, to offer kidney transplants, a relationship that is ongoing.

According to the Guyana-born Subraj, who also attended the CME last week, the move to bring Dr Waller to Guyana is one intended to “bring awareness of what is possible, because people are not always fully aware of what can be done…and so instead of burying all these parts we could be making good use of them. I will do what I can to help,” Subraj assured.
Reports are that the first Eye Bank was founded in 1944 in the United States. Currently in the United States, eye banks provide tissue for about 46, 000 cornea transplants each year to treat conditions such as keratoconus (a degenerative disorder) and corneal scarring.
In some cases, the white of the eye (sclera) is used to surgically repair recipient eyes. But unlike other organs and tissues, reports suggest that there is an adequate supply of corneas for transplant in the United States, thus allowing for excess tissue to be exported internationally since there is a shortage of corneal tissue in many other countries.
According to Head of the GPHC Ophthalmology Department, Dr George Norton, putting in place an Eye Bank could be a step in the right direction for Guyana. He alluded to the fact that while countries like Trinidad, for instance, have been engaged in a number of cornea transplants, they are yet to embrace the concept of putting in place an Eye Bank.
“In spite of their advancement in terms of medical science and their economic status, they still import cornea from the United States every time a doctor wants to do a cornea transplant,” disclosed Dr Norton.
“One visiting doctor told me all we need to have is a refrigerator…it is not rocket science for the average ophthalmologist…to do a cornea transplant,” said Dr Norton, who however noted that the limiting factor could be the availability of the cornea or the donor tissue.
The process, according to him, is in fact nothing new to Guyana, since under his headship the GPHC has been able to undertake five such transplants.

“These patients were condemned to blindness and they were young…here it was if their situations had remained how it was, they would have been a uniocular person today, with limited vision in one eye,” disclosed Dr Norton.
The operations on those occasions were facilitated by an ophthalmologist from the United Kingdom who had brought along the corneas to undertake the transplants. “Those persons are now enjoying vision from both eyes,” Dr Norton said.

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