Facts and Significance of eye donation

Everyone is well aware of the extensive advertisements and awareness campaigns by many personalities, urging people to pledge the donation of their eyes. The main reason behind such campaigns is that in India alone there are around 5 million people affected with corneal blindness for which the major successful treatment is the transplantation from the donor eye. As per WHO, corneal blindness accounts for nearly 5.1% global blindness and is the 4th major cause of blindness.

• Only the corneal layer, which is the outermost thin transparent layer of the eye, is used in the restoration of the vision in corneal blind people.
•  The other parts of the eye are used, if collected, only for research and educational purposes.
•  Each pair of eye donated gives sight to two blind people.

•  Eyes and be donated only after the death of the donor and is collected within 6 hours of death.
•  It is a 15-20 minutes procedure and the procedure is absolutely free of cost
•  Two methods of removal:
•   Removing only corneal layer
•  Removing the entire eye ball

•  There is no age limit for eye donation. Even children are eligible to donate their eyes.
•  People with vision problem like short or long sightedness, patients with diabetes, glaucoma are eligible for donating.
•  Patients with AIDS, infection or ulceration in the cornea, death by drowning are not allowed to donate their eyes.

•  The cornea, consisting of 5 thin layers, is the outermost transparent layer of the eye and acts as a window to refract and focus the light, entering the eyes, on the lens. And hence the recipient eye does not have any resemblance to that of the donor. 
•  The cornea does not contain any blood vessels and the innermost corneal layer allows the passage of nutrients to its outer layers. Hence malnutrition causes the cornea to degenerate causing corneal blindness.
•  Other major causes of corneal blindness are ocular trauma due to accidents, infection and ulceration of the corneal layers.
•  The corneal cells do not have the ability to divide and multiply. In case of any corneal damage due to minor trauma, the cells only enlarge to makeup for the damage. Any major damage to the cornea results in vision loss i.e. corneal blindness.
•  This inability of the corneal cells to divide makes the grafting of the human donor cornea to be the most successful way in restoring the vision in corneal blind patients.
•  A small section is dissected from the donor cornea and is grafted on the damaged area of the recipient, thus restoring the lost function of the cornea to focus the light and enabling the patient to see.
•  Researches for artificial corneal grafts are in process and few successful finding of appropriate synthetic material for the grafts have been reported but yet to be tested for its effeciency and adverse effects, if any.