FIGHT AGAINST BLINDNESS

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26031, 7 February 1950, Page 5

FIGHT AGAINST BLINDNESS

SUCCESS OF CORNEAL GRAFTS

FRENCH CAMPAIGN TO OBTAIN EYES

(By ERNEST SANDFORD, a Reuter Correspondent in Paris)

The French “Eye Bank” will soon launch a nation-wide 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 that the restoration of sight to the blind by a grafting of the cornea is now performed every day. Between 5000 and 10,000 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 of the eyes ’ is to be issued. The eye bank, run in connexion 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 fa S^ r ® a ß he ? tbe eye tis sue can fie artificially kept alive for only about a week.

Limitations of Cure What is needed, therefore, is a steady supply of human eyes. For this reason, the appeal for eye donors 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 DHna can be made to see. Corneal grafting can restore sight only to those who are blind because of diseases of the cornea, the transparent membrane covering tbe pupil. These are about one-fifth of the §O,OOO 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 19 V’ the first international Keratoplasty Congress was held P oo^ x kn °wledge on the subject. The first successful operation mo h a J r^ d f Out to Czechoslovakia in firX? by ♦ Pro £ ssor Elschnmg, and the u ? e of corneas re- < from the dead was made by a Russian, Professor Filatov. y _ p r°g res s in France from operations a s ? a^e to the nation-wide hv i blln ? I?e + ss has been impeded by legal restrictions and private prejudice The last impedimenta have now been removed by a new law h ro, +£ ht « l he stat ute Book mainly by the efforts of Dr. Bernard Lafav Blfnd de Thp f »J he i Assoc . iation for the anna. The new law sets out the legal Or bequest of the eyes, and th a °tt S a stl P ulati °n that no part of the body can be removed less than 24 hours after dehth, and that any such must take place in a hospital. Safeguards are provided misunderstanding, but the Of nelrfv th dePriV n d the eye ba ” k F?f? rly al L tbe small resources given lt bas now been abolished. The Church has also given its anproval to the eye bank’s work. P "Thousands of Benefactors Needed” Dr. Pierre Theil, of the French Eve Bank, said: “We have been work® Ing on a limited scale for about an ?- P erf °nned between 400 and 500 operations. Success has been 100 PnH Cent X e now need equipmentS l fL eyes - Th e eure is certain when it ls 1116 f °™ ea that is the cause of blindbenefactorsT ’ need thousands <>i

After a person’s death, the tissue °f„“ e cornea lives for eight hours, or eignt days if physiologically preserved. 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, or perforation, and the vital, seeing retina of the eye may remain sound. A person may be born blind because of a defective cornea but otherwise capable of seeing. He has no window to his eyes, pie cornea does not heal like the skin. When it is damaged, the damage is permanent, and only reglacement can prevent total or partial lindness.

The cornea is .0275 in thick and it is curved. To cut a section from the laulty 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 keen 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 research workers. They in turn are challenging the public to join in the fight against blindness.