RAWALPINDI: The Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospital has authorized the use of Bowmann Layer Transplantation (BLT) for keratoconus patients after reviewing two years’ postoperative outcomes.
Major Gen. (Retd) Rehmat Khan, President of the Al-Shifa Trust on Tuesday told the media that the hospital had started treating keratoconus patients using cutting-edge Swiss femtosecond laser technology, which was expected to benefit many people in Pakistan who have keratoconus and were awaiting corneal transplantation.
He informed the trust has become the first hospital in Asia to employ femtosecond laser technology in public for the treatment of Keratoconus, an eye condition that damages the cornea, adding “BLT strengthens the weak cornea, avoiding or delaying the need for a full corneal transplantation.”
Khan said the most recent technology was used experimentally for the first time in 2020 and was now being used in patient care as a result of successful testing.
He said the decision would not only allow our ophthalmologists to deliver cutting-edge care to their patients, but it would also allow us to train medical experts from other hospitals.
Al-Shifa Trust President added that with this latest technology, layers of one donor cornea could be used to treat two to three patients with different corneal problems.
Presently, more than two hundred and fifty thousand patients are waiting for corneal transplants “We operate around 800 patients every year, he said, adding that a big deficit exists between corneal supply and demand.”
Maj. Gen. Retired Rehmat Khan said that 53 per cent of the eye patients have no access to donated corneas as local corneal donations were insignificant; therefore,” We have to import corneas from the USA and Sri Lanka.”
Corneas are one of the easiest tissues to transplant, as no matching was required between the donor and the recipient, he said and added that It is a bloodless tissue that takes oxygen directly from the air.
A cornea can be taken from an elderly person and grafted Into the eyes of a much younger one, he added.