PESHAWAR: The ophthalmologists in Khyber Teaching Hospital are restoring eyesight of people through corneas donated by overseas Pakistani doctors and philanthropists.

“Since May 2017, we have carried out 95 corneal transplant surgeries free of cost. In the corneal transplant or keratoplasty procedure, the damaged cornea of the eye is replaced with a healthy donor graft,” Dr Zaman Shah, a consultant at ophthalmology department of KTH, told Dawn.

He said that the beneficiaries included 60 per cent women and 40 per cent men, who were blinded by diseases or trauma. “Most of the people get their cornea damaged due to blast by pressure cookers. This can be avoided trough public awareness,” he added.

The patients belonged to Afghanistan, Swat, Bajaur, Dir, Waziristan, Swabi and Lahore.

Dr Zaman said that as there was no culture of organs donations in Pakistan, the Association of Physicians of Pakistani Descent of North America (Appna) and Sri Lanka-Pakistan Friendship Association were sending corneas, which enabled the patients to regain their eyesight.

He said that most of the patients were poor and could not afford the cost of a single corneal graft, which was Rs120,000.

The hospital started free corneal transplant surgeries in May 2017

“The people were selected from the outpatients department (OPD). They required transplantation due to trauma or degenerative diseases, ulcers or injuries, or keratoconus, a disease that causes progressive thinning of cornea for transplant,” he added.

Dr Zaman said that the patients were kept on waiting list and called when the hospital received shipments from the US and Sri Lanka. He said that Al Rahim Trust was facilitating the shipment of cornea from Sri Lanka, which provided 50 corneas in collaboration with Sri Lanka-Pakistan Friendship Association. He added that the remaining 45 cornea were received from Appna.

“Following transplantation, the recipients are then examined on weekly basis for the first month and then on monthly basis for one year prior to removal of stitches,” said Dr Zaman. He added that the patients were advised to use sunglasses.

He said that they had been conducting corneal transplant since May 2017. He added that the patients, who had no vision before transplantation, regained eyesight.

“We have been using latest procedure for transplantation, which has nominal rejection rate as opposed to the old method that has 90 per cent success rate,” he said.

Dr Zaman said that they carried out new transplant procedures including ‘deep anterior lamellar keratoplasty’ (DALK), ‘pre-descemet’s deep anterior lamellar keratoplasty’ and descemet membrane endothelial keratoplasty (DMEK). In this surgical technique, the chances of graft rejection are minimal and cornea works for lifetime.

Prof Zafar Iqbal at Lady Hospital said they had carried out 22 cornea transplant during the past few months. He said that the corneas had been supplied by Appna for poor patients.

Published in Dawn, March 27th, 2018