HCP teams with SightLife to tackle Corneal Blindness in Nepal
Drs. Sharma and Oliva.
A blind cornea patient in Nepal.
Nepal's corneal surgeons with Dr. Oliva.
The first ever Nepal Eye Bank and Corneal Transplantation Congress took place April 15-19, 2010, hosted by HCP, Tilganga Institute of Ophthalmology, and SightLife, our international partner in eradicating corneal blindness. Eight corneal surgeons and numerous eyebanking staff, representing five different institutions spanning the geographic breadth of Nepal, met to formulate a comprehensive five-year plan to rapidly increase the number of corneas available for transplantation in the Himalayan region.
Following cataract, corneal blindness is the second leading cause of blindness in Nepal and sight is restorable with a corneal transplant procedure. The Nepal Eye Bank was established in 1994 and currently provides 250 corneas per year for transplantation, which does not address the massive need for sight restoring surgery. HCP and SightLife are teaming together to provide the training, management expertise, funding, and surgical training necessary to expand the number of cornea transplants in Nepal to 3,000 corneas per year by 2015.
SightLife, as one of the world’s largest eyebanks, is dedicated to eradicating corneal blindness worldwide (estimated at 10 million persons). SightLife and HCP have committed to working together to further establish Nepal as a worldwide training and treatment center of excellence for corneal blindness.
Just prior to the Eye Bank and Corneal Transplantation Conference, HCP’s Dr. Matt Oliva spent three days in Southeast Nepal working with Dr. Manoj Sharma, head of the corneal service at Lumbini Institute of Ophthalmology. Lumbini is a large eye hospital that serves a densely populated tarai region of Nepal and North India with high volume cataract services, subspecialty services, and residency and surgical training for both Nepali and international physicians.
Dr. Oliva’s focus was to work with Dr. Sharma on expanding the corneal services available in this region. Dr. Oliva arrived with 7 corneas and surgical instruments for corneal surgery. Working together with Dr. Sharma, seven sight restoring corneal transplants were performed using newer lamellar transplant techniques.
HCP will collaborate with the Seva Foundation to train a second corneal surgeon at Lumbini later this year, when Dr. Kavita Dhakwa will spend three months in the United States for advanced surgical training in corneal transplantation.
Dr. Sharma commented:
“Dear Matt,
Thank you for all the help that you have given to us at Lumbini Eye Institute. You have added a new and very important historical page in our institute by introducing DSAEK and DALK corneal transplant techniques. We are very grateful to you.”