Impact of Community Eye banking in India: An uphill task

Swati Tomar

Purpose: To evaluate donor demographics, source and the utilization of corneal tissue procured by the Eye Bank Society of Rajasthan (EBSR), a community Eye Bank in India
Methods: Retrospective review of the eye bank data from January 2002 to December 2009 of 1867 corneas retrieved during this period

Results: During the study period, 1867 corneas were retrieved out of which 66.1% were male donors and 33.9% were female donors with the mean age of 55.4 years and ranged from 3.5 to 92 years. 80% of the donors were from urban area whereas 20% were from rural area. Donor corneas procured through Hospital Cornea Retrieval Programme was 49.7%, public hospitals was12.7% and voluntary house donation was 37.5%. Overall, 52.7% of corneal tissues procured were used for corneal transplantation. Most common reasons for not utilizing the tissues were poor endothelial count.

Conclusions: The main impediments to cornea retrieval include social and religious taboos and absence of motivation and awareness in masses especially in the rural population. In traditionally rigid society of Rajasthan state of India we obtained eye donations through persistent persuasion and motivation, through holding meetings, display of posters, door to door campaign, and advertisement through media. Analysis of EBSR database provides valuable information in relation to Community eye banking and corneal transplantation.