New Delhi, Sep 7 (PTI) The Covid pandemic led to a three-fold increase in the number of patients at the Dr RP Centre of AIIMS who are waiting for corneal transplant even as the National Eye Bank at the institute in 2021 saw 88 per cent utilisation rate of corneas collected which is higher than the national average of 67 per cent.

The eye banking services saw a resurgence after the lull caused by the pandemic, with the National Eye Bank collecting 872 tissues and performing 765 corneal transplantations in 2021, chief of Dr RP Centre for Ophthalmic Sciences, Dr J S Titiyal said on Wednesday.

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However, due to Covid in the last two and a half years, there has been a three-fold increase in the number of patients who are registered and waiting for their transplantation surgery at Dr RP Centre for Ophthalmic Sciences, he said.

"In the past year we witnessed a nearly 100 per cent increase in the corneal tissue collection and transplantations as compared to the year before that wherein 394 tissues were collected, and 311 transplants were performed," Dr Titiyal said.

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Addressing a press conference on the occasion of 37th National Eye Donation Fortnight celebrations, he also said the R P Centre is in the process of developing a smartphone-based app for improving treatment and care of those patients who are waiting for corneal transplantation and those who have already undergone a transplant surgery for a proper follow in the postoperative period.

Citing statistics of the Eye Bank Association of India, Dr Namrata Sharma, professor at R P Centre, said the national utilisation rate has increased from 53 per cent in 2019-2020 to 67 per cent in 2021-2022.

In 2020-2021, due to Covid pandemic the collection was low and demand was high leading to 71 per cent utilisation, she said.

Since April 2022, 556 tissues were collected and 534 transplants were done at R P centre, Dr Titiyal said.

Talking about the backlog of patients due to Covid, he said around 1,300 are registered for corneal transplants. Before Covid, the waiting list used to be of around 450-500 patients.

"Now that Covid cases have almost plateaued the cornea collection and donation is increasing day by day. Before Covid, the number of transplantation and collection had peaked at RP Centre and we were hoping to achieve the target of 3,000 transplantations in a year.

"However, with the arrival of Covid, our number of surgeries performed annually dropped to one-third of what we were doing earlier with three-fold increase in number of cases awaiting surgery," Dr Titiyal said.

So the corneal tissue requirement has increased three-fold and we are collecting three times less than what we were doing earlier. It is a real challenge for us in the times to come, he said.

"There is a need for centralised corneal tissue distribution system for the country, as some eye banks have surplus tissues while others like our institute face a shortage due to the high patient load. Furthermore, we need to formulate the guidelines for compensation of the charges incurred for corneal tissue processing which will help in streamlining the tissue distribution and effective utilization," Dr Titiyal said.

About the app, he said patients facing eye problems from across the country would be able to consult doctors here through it and get their advice. It will also help to track and constantly monitor the patients who are waiting for their turn.

"Through the application, doctors can have direct interaction with patients. There will also be a camera system in that using which patients can share the photographs of their eyes beside explaining their problems and symptoms which in turn can be assessed by the doctors here. Doctors can let them know which disease they are suffering from and if they are registered with us we can tell them what is the timeframe for coming for admission and surgery at RP centre," he said.

Besides, with the help of the app, patients who have undergone transplantation can be effectively tracked.

The centre hopes that the app will get operational in another six months.

Dr Titiyal further said that AIIMS has a 100 per cent online death notification system through which the ORBO and the National Eye bank get notified about any death. The counselling team and technicians then approach the family and counsel them for donation.

The success rate for eye donation in terms of consent for donation is increasing gradually, he said. "Earlier it used to be less than 10 per cent but now it is around 15-20 per cent. Besides, the rate is around 20 per cent at AIIMS and its attached partner hospitals--GTB, DDU and Lady Hardinge."

According to him, pledging for eye donation now is increasing due to improved awareness.

"However, this does not always translate into corneal tissue retrieval. Therefore we need to work to formulate guidelines so that the pledge gets translated into actual corneal tissue donation."

The National Blindness and Visual impairment Survey report released in 2019, jointly by RP Centre and Ministry of Health reported the overall prevalence of blindness in our country as 0.36 per cent.

Among the patients aged less than 50 year of age, corneal disease was the leading cause of blindness, accounting for 37.5 per cent of the cases. The prevalence of blindness among the population with age less than 50 years age was 1.99 per cent, with corneal blindness being the second most common cause in this group, accounting for 8.2 per cent of the cases.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)