Hyderabad: The Shantilal Shanghvi Cornea Institute at LV Prasad Eye Institute (LVPEI) has set a world record for the highest number of corneal transplants performed by any institution globally. Since its founding in 1987, LVPEI has successfully completed over 50,000 corneal transplants.
The Shantilal Shanghvi Cornea Institute (SSCI) was the first of LVPEI’s Institutes of Excellence. Conceived as a global resource center, it aims to address all major causes and forms of corneal impairment and blindness worldwide.
LVPEI’s eye bank network, spread across southern and eastern India, includes four major eye banks: Ramayamma International Eye Bank in Hyderabad, Mohsin Eye Bank in Visakhapatnam, Drushti Daan Eye Bank in Bhubaneswar, and TKEB in Vijayawada. Together, these facilities receive over 12,000 cornea donations annually. Since its establishment in 1989, the Ramayamma International Eye Bank has produced more than 510,000 vials of corneal preservation medium and harvested 129,500 corneas.
Founding Chairman Dr. Gullapalli N. Rao emphasized the growing need for corneal transplants in India, stating, “We require at least one lakh corneal transplants annually, but currently only around 30,000 are performed each year.” He highlighted that when the institute began in 1987, only 3,000 corneal transplants were carried out nationwide, with a high failure rate. “In the last 35 years, we’ve collected 1.2 lakh corneas, the highest in the Asia Pacific region, and performed 50,000 corneal transplants in the institute’s 37-year journey,” he added.
