'Cornea retrieval from donors was a record 1,844 last year'

New Delhi: National Eye Bank (NEB) chairman Dr Jeewan S Titiyal said that in 2017, a record 1,844 corneas were retrieved from donors, the highest in the past 52 years.

"As many as 1,285 corneal transplant surgeries were conducted last year, which amounts to a utilisation rate of 70 per cent," the senior doctor at AIIMS here said.

"A window of 'six to eight hours', after the death of a person is considered the 'optimum time' on an average for donation of eyes for transplant surgery. But, in some cases, corneas have also been accepted after 24 hours," he added.

Titiyal's comments came during a press conference at the Dr Rajendra Prasad Centre for Ophthalmic Sciences at AIIMS on Tuesday, to mark the 33rd Eye Donation Fortnight celebrations.

"Six hours is the cut-off period for donation of eyes in places with warm and humidclimate, and about eight hours in cold conditions or where the body has been kept in cooled environment having a refrigerator or air-cooling system," he said when asked if there was 'golden hour' for eye donation vis-a-vis organ donation.

"There is no golden hour define as such, but six-hours hours is considered the optimum time on an average," the senior doctor said.

He said that of the eyes donated at NEB, about 60 per cent were given within eight hours while most of the corneal donations came within six.