Cornea donations greatly reduced because of pandemic, finds study

The shortage has led to permanent blindness in 20%-25% of patients

A multi-centre study of corneal donations in Aravind Eye Hospital found that during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the number of donations had fallen drastically. This hurt patients who required corneal transplant to heal ulcers. Some of them have lost their sight permanently. The study ‘Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on infectious Keratitis Outcomes: A Retrospective Multi-center Study in Tertiary Eye Hospitals of South India’, published in a peer-reviewed journal Cornea, found that the delay in presentation and acute shortage of donor corneal tissues for emergency keratoplasty because of the pandemic had resulted in irreversible blindness in a significant number of patients. The study that pertained to the five centres of Aravind Eye Hospital found that from 1,265 corneal donations in 2016-17, it fell to 61 in 2020-21. Any injury to the eye could result in a whitish scar, leading to the cornea losing its transparency, and the person would require a corneal transplant.