KARACHI, Jan 9: Dr Asad Abbas performed the first ever successful grafting operations of plastic cornea in Pakistan here on Wednesday at the Aga Khan University Hospital.

Dr Asad Abbas, Senior Instructor, Department of Ophthalmology, was stated by the AKU sources to have operated on a patient whose vision had been impaired due to an accident involving acid.

Keratoprosthesis, as it is technically termed, is a surgery first of its kind in the Subcontinent. Prior to this, the grafting of plastic cornea was done only in a few developed countries.

Very few centres around the world are geared to perform this surgery due to either lack of training in the field or lack of access to the hardware.

Dr Abbas was trained in ophthalmology in the USA with special interest in corneal grafting and in the grafting of plastic corneas.—APP