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:
“No direct hit to smash the shatter-proof
And lodge at last the quivering needle
Clean in the eye of one who stands transfixed
In fascination of her brightness.”
—Karl Shapiro (b. 1913)
“Life is a long Dardenelles, My Dear Madam, the shores whereof are bright with flowers, which we want to pluck, but the bank is too high; & so we float on & on, hoping to come to a landing-place at last—but swoop! we launch into the great sea! Yet the geographers say, even then we must not despair, because across the great sea, however desolate & vacant it may look, lie all Persia & the delicious lands roundabout Damascus.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)