U-M Hospital To Form Eye Bank For Surgery

U-M Hospital To Form Eye Bank For Surgery

An eye bank to provide healthy corneas for persons in Michigan with diseased corneas will be established at the University Hospital, it was announced here today.

The bank will be made possible through the co-operation of individual Lions Clubs in the state.

Eyes donated to the bank will be used to restore sight to persons with diseased corneas by transplantation of healthy corneas.

The Ann Arbor Lions Club approached the University with the proposition to establish such a bank. The primary service function of that organization is work in sight restoration.

Under the agreement, various Lions Clubs in Michigan will support the costs of the bank and obtain pledges for the donation of eyes from persons in their communities.

To Receive Pledges

According to Dr. John Henderson of the University Medical School ophthalmology department, it is hoped that an office will be ready at the hospital by Sept. 15, to receive the pledge donations.

The University Hospital will provide the space and medical personnel to make the bank function and utilize eye material.

Initially the bank will accept only donation pledges from persons within a 50-mile radius of University Hospital because it will be necessary for a doctor from the U-M to remove the eye.

The donated eye must be removed from the donor’s body within two hours after death.

Dr. Henderson said he hoped that practicing ophthalmologists throughout the state will become interested in the program and volunteer to obtain eyes in their own communities when a donor dies. He added that it is necessary that eyes be removed under the same sanitary conditions that prevail in the hospital operating room.

Eye Refrigerated

After the eye is removed, it is packed in a special refrigerated sterile container. It is usable as long as 48 hours under this condition.

Eyes will be used only for plantation of corneas.

Dr. Henderson pointed out that no charge would be made, nor money paid out, for a donated eye.

He adds that the eye bank will probably receive an adequate supply of eyes from various parts of the state after the bank is established and “every effort will be made to make full use of each eye received. When the cornea of the donated eye is removed for transplant, the remainder of the eye will be valuable research and teaching material for the hospital staff.

"Careful study will be made of the remainder of each eye for any disease history it may have. This information will then be passed on to the patients."

Help Other Eye Bank

When the demand for healthy corneas is not strong, donated eyes received will be sent by air to the Eye Bank for Sight Restoration in New York, as they have been in the past from the U-M Hospital.

The hospital hopes to become an affiliated branch of that bank when its operation is developed. The U-M Hospital has been a participating hospital and supplier of eyes for the New York organization for many years.

Robert B. Tilford and John P. Paup are co-chairmen of the Ann Arbor Lions Club committee working on the project.

Announcement of the eye bank in the state was made today in Lansing at the Michigan Lions Convention.

Funds for the eye bank, to be called the Michigan Lions Eye Bank, will be managed by the University Hospital Business Office.