CORNUAL GRAFT

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25902, 7 September 1949, Page 4

CORNUAL GRAFT

DELICATE EYE OPERATION "The Press" Special Service AUCKLAND. September 6. A delicate eye operation, a corneal graft, which has been performed several times in Auckland in the last two years, will be undergone by Mr Alan Jensen, of Napier, in the Auckland Hospital this week. It involves the removal of a portion of the cornea, the “window” of the eye, and its replacement with a good section of cornea taken from another eye. Before any such operation can be performed a person has to be found who, for some reason, such as a growth at the back of an eye, is about to have the eye removed. The damaged portion of the patient’s eye is cut away and a disc of clear tissue from the donor’s eye is grafted on in its place. Several offers have been received from people in the Dominion who wish to leave their eyes after death, but an eye has to be used within 48 hours of its removal, the maximum storage period. Mr Jensen, who has lost the sight of one eye and has poor vision with the other, has been waiting two years for a healthy cornea to become available. Snecial surgical instruments have had to be imported from the United States for the operation, as the piece of tissue to be grafted is larger than usual.