LV Prasad Eye Institute (LVPEI) created a milestone by performing 100th Corneal transplantation on April 5 in rural centre eye care network at its Mudhole Secondary eye centre in Nirmal district of Telangana.

The journey of providing complex surgical care right at the doorsteps of rural communities started in March 2016 with the first corneal transplant being performed at the Institute’s Dhulipalla secondary eye centre in Guntur District. In a span of just three years, the secondary centre networks in Mudhole (Nirmal District), Dhullipalla (Guntur District), Venkatachalam (Nellore District) and Paloncha (Bhadradri Kothagudem District) have collectively performed a hundred corneal transplants.

Congratulating his team of surgeons and eye banking experts, LVPEI Founder and Chair Dr Gullapalli N Rao said, “This achievement is an example of a “road never travelled”. From a situation when I was told to forget corneal transplantation as it is an impossibility in India just about 32 years ago when we founded the L V Prasad Eye Institute, we have now achieved this remarkable feat. Several in our team have worked hard to make this happen and I thank them for making us proud.” Dr Rao added.

Over the past 32 years, LVPEI has worked to greatly increase the collection of transplantable donor corneas and elevate eye banking performance standards in India, other parts of Asia and the developing world. The institute’s expert cornea surgeons have been able to achieve exceptional outcomes of transplantation surgeries thanks in large measure to the high standards of eye banking, besides their own world class training and expertise.
Established in 1989, the Ramayamma International Eye Bank (RIEB) at LVPEI is the largest provider of sight restoring corneas in India and a SightLife Centre of Excellence in Eye Banking. In 2015, LV Prasad Eye Institute had created history in the field of Corneal Transplantation by becoming the first single Institute ever in the world to achieve 20,000 corneal transplants across its network, a LVPEI statement said on April 12.