Private hospital looking to sustain corneal transplant programme

Aug 03, 2014 News

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By Sharmain Grainger

A requisite feature to sustain the provision of corneal transplants is the establishment of an Eye Bank. Moreover, astute consideration is being directed towards such a development in the near future.

At least this was the disclosure of officials of the privately operated Dr Balwant Singh Hospital during a press conference yesterday to announce the first cases of successful corneal transplants at the hospital.
The transplants were conducted on July 26 and 27 last by Ophthalmologist, Dr. Neeraj Jain, on five men and one woman between the ages of 20 and 72 who were discharged from hospital within 24-48 hours after operation. They had all previously suffered from various degenerative eye conditions ranging from keratoconus (a condition in which the corneal is unable to hold its round shape) to leucomatous corneal opacity (loss of transparency).
However, corneal transplants are not novel to Guyana as such procedures were conducted successfully at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation a few years ago by local Ophthalmologist, Dr. George Norton.
While acknowledging this, Administrator of the private hospital, Dr. Madhu Singh, said that “we are hoping that we will be able to start a sustained programme,” even as she expressed optimism that people would be encouraged to donate their corneals.
The corneal is the transparent front of the eye that serves to protect the iris, pupil and anterior chamber.
And with an Eye Bank in place, Dr. Jain said that corneals could be donated and stored, thereby allowing for transplants to become a regular feature at the Dr. Balwant Singh Hospital.
According to him, he has been functioning at the hospital for the past eight years and was able to deduce that corneal transplant is among the many procedures that are not being offered in Guyana.
In fact, he intimated that many of the patients in need of such transplants are either forced to travel overseas to secure the needful attention or simply adapt to existing with their challenge.
Ahead of coming to Guyana, Dr. Jain had for a number of years been integrally involved in such procedures in India from which he hails.
However, the decision to introduce the procedure was brought into being through the private hospital’s collaboration with Kidney Surgeon, Dr. Rahul Jindal and Philanthropist, Mr George Subraj, who have been plugging much support into the local health sector.
They were able to bring on board American Ophthalmologist, Dr. Stephen Waller, who earlier this year travelled to Guyana to facilitate an informative session at the GPHC to highlight the importance of corneal transplants and the setting up of an Eye Bank.
During that forum held in March, Dr. Waller insisted that retrieving and storing eyes for corneal transplants and research is certainly not out of reach in Guyana. In fact he speculated that such a realisation could be possible within a year.
He disclosed that instead of simply burying persons with their corneas intact, the corneals of persons registered as donors could be stored at an established Eye Bank, similar to what is done for other transplanted organs.  This, he noted, could be done with the view of helping those with various visual impairments.
Dr. Waller insisted that utilising the corneals of cadavers for the purpose of transplantation should never be allowed without first thoroughly analysing and fully knowing their medical history. Moreover, Dr. Waller, who supervised the recent procedures, was therefore instrumental in helping to secure the corneals for the recent transplants.
But according to Dr. Singh, there are some countries that are known to purchase corneals for operation, an avenue she said that the hospital may look at if donations are not readily forthcoming.
However, Guyana, at this point, does not have legislation in place for the donation of corneals, a situation Dr. Singh is hopeful the Ministry of Health will address in the near future. “There is definitely need for that because of the very fact that we have done six cases,” she noted.
Validating the need for measures to be taken urgently, Dr. Jain said that there is currently a list of about 25 patients awaiting corneal transplants.
“In long term we are trying to bridge this gap either by getting more corneals from America or having the local Eye Bank which can actually fulfil the needs,” said Dr. Jain, who pointed out that currently, the procedure is not a profit making one for the hospital.  He disclosed that those patients who were operated on were only required to pay a minimal hospital cost but noted that a corneal transplant in actuality could cost as much as $600,000.

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