LV Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad has been designated as a World Health Organisation Centre. The Institute has also been named as a centre in the area of eye care by the Andhra Pradesh government. The Institute has also been entrusted with the responsibility of leading the State's Vision 2020: The Right to Sight programme.
LVPEI's research centre was recognised by the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India, as the Centre for Stem Cell Research in the eye, for the country.
In its Annual Activity Report 2001-02, it commends its performance and lists several new landmarks. The Eye Bank crossed the 1000-mark and harvested 1,047 corneas and performed 815 corneal transplants during the year. The Ocular Oncology service is fast emerging as one of the most comprehensive services for eye tumours in this part of the world. In partnership with Carl Zeiss of Germany it has set up an Academy of Advanced Ophalmic Education. Its molecular genetic group continues to unravel some of the underlying genetic mechanisms for eye diseases.
Two new concepts for improving rural eye care, under the Village Vision Programme, looks promising. One is the community assisted and financed eye care (CAFÉ), where each member of the community contributes one rupee a month for comprehensive eye care services with the ultimate aim of reaching sustainable eye care. The other is training of unemployed and marginalised rural women in skills related to testing near vision and making them financially independent, through the sale of near vision glasses in the remote areas, through the micro-credit approach.
The Eye Bank was successful in retrieving eyes from 525 donors locally. The hospital cornea retrieval programme led to the recovery of eyes from 361 of the 525 donors who died in hospitals. A Specular microscope has been installed in the Eye Bank which evaluates all donor corneas for various endothelial cell parameters to assess their suitability for transplantation. This was made possible through the joint efforts of the International Federation of Eye & Tissue Banks, Baltimore, USA, Rotary International, USA, and the Rotary Club of Hyderabad.
New state-of-the-art equipment was installed in the area of diagnostics, thanks to Carl Zeiss of Germany, as well as equipment for diagnosis and treatment in the Ocular Oncology service. This is one of the leading centres for the treatment of ocular tumours and includes the successful method for irradiating medium-sized tumours using radioactive plaque/ brachytherapy.
Jhaveri Mocrobiology Laboratory (JML) is a part of the Prof. Brien Holden Eye Reseach Centre and is engaged in investigating a variety of infectious diseases of the eye that are caused by bacteria, fungi, viruses, and parasites. The three-pronged activities of the centre consist of diagnosis, research and teaching. The centre received grants from the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, towards projects related to bacterial resistance and antibiotics.
Three new treatments were also initiated and reinforced during the year. The Photodynamic Therapy (PDT), started in May 2001, is a line of treatment for age-related macular degeneration and high myopia. The centre has treated 37 patients till now.
Chorio-retinal anastomosis in non-ischemic central retinal vein occlusion (CRVO) is a relatively new treatment, offered in select cases of non-ischemic CRVO. It enhances the chances of early recovery and offers an improved visual prognosis.
Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP), a disease commonly found in premature babies, is now an enduring extension of the Institute's patient care services. LVPEI can now offer a lot more as a tertiary eye care centre and a referral hospital for all eye diseases.
Patients come from all parts of the world --from the African, West Asian, South Asian, and the European countries. Patients also come from the USA and the UK.
The year has been both pleasing and productive. The Institute was able to compete and win a major grant from the ICMR for its molecular genetic studies and another from the Dept of Biotechnology for the stem cell research. The latter technology is at the cutting edge, practised by no more than three or four centres across the globe. It involves the harvesting of stem cells from the limbus of the eye and explant-culturing them so that the resultant material can be used to reconstruct the damaged outer surface of the eye, thus enabling it to better accept a corneal graft. Its success in transplanting this technology from the Petri dish to the patient's eye has been noted with admiration the world over.