Milestone achieved: 1st successful corneal transplantation done at Silchar Medical College

January 31: It was indeed a milestone achieved by Silchar Medical College and Hospital (SMCH) on Friday, when two successful keratoplasty (corneal transplantations) were done at SMCH by a team of doctors led by distinguished surgeon Dr Asish Deb and Dr. Thakur. Counsellor cum PRO of the Eye Bank at SMCH, Mithun Roy said, “It’s a mega day in the history of SMCH.”

Two persons without eyesight were performed corneal transplantation of one eye each during a surgery on 31 January at SMCH. The officials of SMCH Eye Bank contacted those who have registered themselves as blind. They were successful in contacting two such blind persons. They were given counselling by the experts on Thursday and then the transplants were done on Friday. Both these two persons are from Silchar town.

Out of the two, one of them is a case of accidental blindness. He met with a bike accident around 5 years ago in which he lost his eyesight. He regularly was in touch with the Eye Bank of SMCH for any persons donating eyes after death. Another person was by birth blind. Both of them underwent corneal transplantation. Counsellor Mithun Roy said, “Now for the next one year, both of them will have to regularly come to SMCH for check up as per the advice of the doctors.”

It, however, needs mention that in the recent past, two persons donated their eyes to the Eye Bank of SMCH, but these eyes could not be transplanted as there were bacterial infections in them. Though corneal transplantation of those eyes were not possible, yet these were not wasted. Infact, those two eyes were used by the students of SMCH, who were taught the process of corneal transplantation in the dead bodies.

The eyes which were transplanted were donated by Jamuna Prasad Koiri of Nutan Bazar. He died due to cardiac arrest at Valley Hospital on the day of Saraswati Puja. As per the wish of Jamuna Prasad Koiri, his sons brought the body to SMCH, where after completing all formalities, his cornea was taken out.

You may hear the words “eye transplant” used by patients, but a true eye transplant surgery is not possible. An entire eye cannot be taken from one person and transplanted into another person in order to improve vision. Currently, the only eye transplant procedure that is available is the cornea transplant, which replaces a diseased cornea with a cornea donated by a deceased donor. A cornea transplant can produce remarkable changes in vision. In fact, some individuals can be legally blind prior to surgery and find their vision is 20/20 after a cornea transplant.

Also Read: Family of deceased donate eyes at SMCH…মৃতের পরিবার চক্ষু দিয়ে গেল শিলচর মেডিক্যালে