Hyderabad's global eye banking leader celebrates Silver Jubilee

June 27, 2014 - PRLog -- Hyderabad, June, 27, 2014 – L V Prasad Eye Institute (LVPEI) today celebrated the silver jubilee of Ramayamma International Eye Bank (RIEB), a global leader in eye banking.

RIEB is the largest provider of sight restoring corneas in India. Since its inception, RIEB has focused on setting high quality standards and being innovative, while rapidly increasing its supply of transplantable corneas. RIEB has actively promoted and supported the networking and development of eye banks throughout India, and other parts of Asia and the developing world. In the past 25 years, it has cumulatively harvested nearly 50,000 corneas and transplanted over 24,500 of them to needy patients, the largest number done by a single centre in the world, and has been recognized by SightLife as a ‘Global Centre of Excellence.’

Speaking on the occasion, Dr Gullapalli N Rao, Founder-Chair, LVPEI, said, ”From harvesting just 20 corneas in its first year in 1989 to nearly 4500 corneas this past year, RIEB has chartered a phenomenal growth for a developing country like India where traditionally, there has always been a lot of pessimism about organ transplantation. RIEB is today one of the biggest eye banks in the world thanks to the dynamic team we have at LVPEI, and the supporters who came forward to help us: Smt Gunnam Ramayamma, Sri Gunnam Subba Rao, and their family, international organizations such as Sightsavers, International Federation of Eye and Tissue Banks, CBM, Orbis International, Eyesight International and SightLife, besides the Rotary Club of Hyderabad and others.”

A day long scientific program was organized on the occasion with national and international experts in eye banking discussing topics that ranged from ‘Eye banking in India’, ‘Eye banking models’, ‘Improving outcomes of corneal transplants’ and ‘Future of eye/ tissue bank.’

About Ramayamma International Eye Bank (RIEB)

The Ramayamma International Eye Bank (RIEB) is the largest provider of sight restoring corneas in India and a SightLife Center of Excellence in Eye Banking. Since its establishment in 1989, RIEB has greatly increased the collection of transplantable donor corneas and elevated eye banking performance standards in India, and other parts of Asia and the developing world. As a leader in eye banking across Asia, RIEB has contributed significantly to the effective networking and proliferation of eye banks through promotion of community eye banking programs.

Corneas collected from donors are used both in-house and distributed to other centres. The cost-effective medium used to store corneas – the MK Medium - is manufactured at RIEB and sent to other needy eye banks in India and other neighbouring countries such as Nepal, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Mongolia and Kenya.  As of April 2014, RIEB has harvested over 46,000 donor corneas, and transplanted over 24,500 of them to needy patients. It has the distinction of performing the largest number of keratoplasties done by a single centre in the world.

The RIEB offers certificate courses to different cadres of eye bank personnel. At the RIEB training center, eye bank professionals from India and other countries are educated in the planning of eye banking services, policy making in eye banking and eye banking techniques.

The RIEB established a facility of 'pre-cutting' donor corneal tissues in 2012. This makes it the first centre in the Asia Pacific region to have such an advanced facility that not only reduces the overall cost of the surgery but also standardizes the procedure.

About L V Prasad Eye Institute

The L V Prasad Eye Institute (LVPEI) was established in 1986-87 at Hyderabad as a not-for-profit, non-government, public-spirited, comprehensive eye care institution. LVPEI is governed by two trusts: the Hyderabad Eye Institute and the Hyderabad Eye Research Foundation. The Institute is a World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Prevention of Blindness and a Global Resource Center for VISION 2020: The Right to Sight initiative. LVPEI has six active arms to its areas of operations namely Clinical Services, Education, Research, Rehabilitation and Sight Enhancement Services, Eye Bank, and Public Health and Rural Outreach.  For more information, visit www.lvpei.org

For further information, please contact:

Dr Sreedevi Yadavalli

Associate Director and Head – Communications

Tel: +91 040 23547254, +91 040 30612555; Email: ysreedevi@lvpei.org