By IANS
Melbourne : A team of surgeons led by an Indian has performed a ground-breaking corneal transplant in Australia that may help people with corneal blindness regain their sight faster and better.
Rasik Vajpayee, head of Corneal and Cataract Surgery and Professor of Ophthalmology at the Centre for Eye Research Australia and University of Melbourne, successfully sliced the tissue of a cornea into three parts, to replace diseased areas of three patients, including a five-year old.
In the new procedure which was performed last month, surgeons only made a small incision and removed and replaced the diseased layer of the cornea. Benefits of this procedure include fewer rejections, reduced chances of infection and just one month of healing.
All the surgical procedures were performed successfully on a single day, using the cornea of a 44-year-old who had died following a cardiac arrest, ethnic Indian magazine Indian Link reported.
"This technique allows effective optimisation of donor corneal tissue and complements well the current procedures of customised component corneal transplantation surgery involving selective replacement of only the diseased corneal layer with a corresponding layer of healthy donor corneal tissue. We have already started one such technique of suture-less corneal transplant surgery called DSAEK (Descemet stripping automated endothelial keratoplasty) technique at the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital," Vajpayee said.
If this medical technique becomes standard surgical procedure then it will mean that the wait for a donor's cornea will go down significantly for the visually impaired.
Vajpayee received his medical degree from Gandhi Medical College, Bhopal, in 1981 and trained in ophthalmology from the same medical school. He has completed clinical fellowship in cornea and refractive surgery at the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital, Melbourne, and at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, USA.
Before moving to Australia he worked at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi as the head of cornea and refractive surgery.
"In India, we have already adopted this procedure. For many years corneal surgeons at AIIMS have been using one donor tissue for two patients quite often. I am sure this technology of using one cornea for multiple recipients is going to be practised all over the world, particularly in countries where there is a shortage of donor corneal tissue," Vajpayee said.
The professor received a World Health Organisation (WHO) fellowship at Harvard Medical School in 2000. His innovations in the field of corneal transplantation surgery have won 'Best of Show Award' at the annual meetings of American Academy of Ophthalmology in 2003 and 2004.
The American Academy of Ophthalmology honoured Vajpayee in 2005 with an achievement award at its annual meeting in Chicago. In recognition of his clinical and academic contributions, he was also honoured with the fellowship by the Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh, UK.