RESTORATION OF SIGHT

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 70, Issue 126, 13 March 1950, Page 6

RESTORATION OF SIGHT

APPEAL BY FRENCH “EYE BANK”

(By Ernest Sundford, a Reuter Correspondent in Paris.)

The French “Eye Bank” is shortly to, launch a nationwide appeal to the people of France to bequeath to it in their wills one of the most precious of all possessions—sight. A poster campaign is being prepared to announce thati the restoration of sight to the blind by a grafting of the cornea is a “miracle” which is now performed every day. Between 5,000 and Ip,000; people in France, the population will be told, need this operation. To enable this blind legion to see again, the “Eye Bank” is appealing to people to bequeath their eyes for use after death in the corneal grafting operation.

A legal form of “bequest of the eyes” is to be issued. The, “Eye Bank”, run in connection with the Association for the Blind, at present has a stock of about 200 human eyes which have been preserved after being removed from persons who have died and left their eyes to the Association. Not only is this number insufficient for present needs, but at the stage research has so far reached the eye tissue can only be artificially kept alive for about a week. What is needed, therefore, is a steady supply of human eyes. For this reason, the appeal for eyedonors will become as widespread as the appeal for blood-donors; but the fact that this operation is becoming more and more widespread does not mean that all blind can be made to see. Corneal grafting can restore sight only to those who are .blind owing to diseases of the cornea —the transparent membrane covering the pupil. These are tbout one-fifth of the 50,000 total in France.

The “Eye Bank” is already a great working organisation in the United States, where only recently a gangster before going to execution, made a will leaving his eyes to the bank in “expiation” of his crimes. Aircraft in America transport the short-lived corneas from the repository to remote operating theatres. France played a big part in research on corneal grafting, and it was in Paris in May 1947 that the first international Keratoplasty Congress was held to pool world knowledge on the subject. The first successful operation was carried out in Czechoslovakia in 1930 by Professor Elschning, and the first systematic use of corneas removed from the dead was made by the Russian Professor Filatov.

Last Impediment Removed

Progress in France from operations on a small scale to the nationwide cure of blindness has been impeded by legal restrictions and private prejudice. The last impediments have now been removed by a new law, brought to the Statute Book mainly by the efforts of Doctor Bernard Lafay, Senator, Scientist, Resistance fighter and President of the Association for the Blind. The new law sets out the legal process for bequest of the eyes and abolishes a stipulation that no part of the body can be removed less than 24 hours after death and that any such removal must take place in a hospital. Safeguards are provided against accident or misunderstanding, but the time-lag that deprived the “eye bank” of nearly all the small resources given it has now been ab dished. The church has also given its approval to the Eye Bank’s work. Dr. Pierre Theil, of the “Eye Bank”, told me: ‘We have been working on a limited scale for about a year and performed between 400 and 500 operations. Success has been 100 per cent. We now need equipment—and eyes. The cure is certain when it is the cor nea that is the cause of blindness, but we shall need thousands of benefactors.”

Cornea Lives Eight Hours

After a person’s death, the tissue of the cornea lives for eight hours —eight days, if physiologically preserved. The “Eye Bank” has these two factors to deal with: The living cornea must be removed with the minimum delay. It must be grafted on the blind eye after the minimum period in storage.

The cornea may suffer many injuries—wounds, burns, disease, perforation —and the vital, seeing retina of the eye remain sound. A person may be born blind owing to a defective cornea but otherwise capable of seeing. He has no window to his eyes. The cornea does not heal like the skin. When it is damaged, the damage is permanent and only replacement can prevent total or partial blindness.

The cornea is .0275 of an inch thick and it is curved. To cut a section from the faulty cornea, replace it with the new one, cover the pupil with a protective layer of membrane, sew first the ‘‘patch” in the eye and then sew together the eyelids to keep them shut for several weeks of healing, is an extremely delicate operation, calling for a surgeon with absolute precision of touch. The surgeons are available. Corneal grafting is a victory consolidated. To-day, blindness of deeper and more difficult origin is challenging reseaarch workers. They in turn are challenging the pubic to join in the fight against the dark.