Chennai hospital gives 4-month-old a new eye
11 Feb 2009, 0434 hrs IST, TNN
CHENNAI: For nearly a month, the four-month-old
boy was writhing in pain. His right
eye had bulged out as the cornea, iris, pupil and
lens was severely infected, a condition
called anterior staphyloma, making it impossible
for him even to blink. Ten days,
ago doctors at Agarwal Hospital performed a
surgery to replace the entire front portion
of the eye using parts of the eye received from a cadaver and synthetic parts.
Ophthalmic surgeon Dr Amar Agarwal, who heads
Agarwal's Eye Hospital, confirmed that
the team of doctors had not only retained the
anatomical integrity after they removed
the diseased eye, but also preserved at least a
part of its functional ability. The
hospital, which claims, this to be the first such
surgery in the world, has called
the procedure anterior segment transplantation.
"When the child came to us, we did not know what
to do. We either had to remove the
eye and place an artificial eye in the empty
socket or do a corneal transplant. There
was no point in doing both. Because the latter
option will fail as there is no iris
or pupil for the eye to see. The first option
could even disfigure the child's face
because without the eye, the socket would not
grow like the other," said Dr Agarwal.
That's when the hospital's consultant Dr Soosan
Jacob decided they would have to
look at newer options. "We decided to use a donor
cornea and sclera along with prosthetic
iris, pupil and lens. We put together a
bio-prosthetic device, which will bind together
well and be more stable," she said.
When the doctor received calls for eye donation,
the team harvested the entire eye
instead of just the cornea and sclera. "Usually,
we pack just these two. This time
we knew we would need a lot more," she said. From
the donor eye, the doctor removed
the cornea and sclera in the hospital. Inside the
cornea, they attached the synthetic
iris and the lens with a special glue. It
automatically created the space for the
pupil. Almost simultaneously, doctors removed the
diseased eye and replaced it with
the bio-prosthetic device.
"It took us four hours to complete the surgery.
But at the end, we thought we have
done something that would help the child lead a
quality life," said Dr Amar. The
hospital was not able to confirm if the boy would
have normal vision. "For now, we
are not sure about the visual capacity of the
implanted eye. So far he has never
used his right eye. To activate it, we close his
normal eye for at least six hours
a day. This will give more input to the nerves in
the eye and enhance his ability
to use the rectified eye," he added.
On the insistence of the boy's parents, Dr
Agarwal named him Kailash. Holding Kailash
in her arms, his mother Kala told reporters: "I
have two reasons to celebrate. My
son can now possibly see. He is no more in pain
and he has a name," she said. Her
husband Govindaraju, a coolie added: "The
hospital has waived off the bill," he said.
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