Eye Bank
Eye banks retrieve and store eyes for cornea transplants and research. In 1944, the first eye bank was founded in New York City by two physicians, Dr. Townley Paton and Dr. John MacLean. Eye banks provide tissue for about 46,000 cornea transplants a year in the United States to treat conditions such as keratoconus and corneal scarring. The cornea is not the only part of the eye that can currently undergo transplantation, as the sclera can also be used to surgically repair recipient eyes. In contrast to other organs, there is an adequate supply of corneas for transplants in the United States, and excess tissue is exported internationally However, internationally, there is a shortage of corneal tissue.
Read more about Eye Bank: Recovery of Eye Tissue, Laboratory Processing, Shortage and Growth of Eye Banks, Regulations, List of Eye Banks in The United States
Famous quotes containing the words eye and/or bank:
“May she be granted beauty and yet not
Beauty to make a stranger’s eye distraught,
Or hers before a looking-glass, for such,
Being made beautiful overmuch,
Consider beauty a sufficient end,
Lose natural kindness”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“When she could hide him no longer she got a papyrus basket for him, and plastered it with bitumen and pitch; she put the child in it and placed it among the reeds on the bank of the river.”
—Bible: Hebrew, Exodus 2:3.