As Good as New!

"I am happy and satisfied that my corneal transplantation in LVPEI was successful – I have made four visits here in the past three months. The tissue was accepted by my body, after I underwent a repeat surgery as the earlier graft was not of a very good quality."

These are the words of young Priti Chopra from Surat. In July 2010, following an eye infection, Priti's eye condition worsened suddenly. It became so severe that she had to undergo an emergency corneal transplantation, performed by a senior eye specialist in Baroda. Because of the urgency of the situation, the doctor had to perforce use the cornea that was available, though it was not of the best quality. The doctor advised her to find a better matching donor later, to enable her to see better.

Priti and her father Mr Brijendra Chopra came to LVPEI in February 2012. Her repeat corneal transplantation surgery was done by Dr Muralidhar Ramappa who considers the surgical outcome as one of the best, owing to the controlled settings, i.e., quiet eye prior to the surgery, good quality donor cornea, a meticulous surgery, combined with regular follow-up and good compliance to medication. These factors ensure good outcomes in at least 90% of the cases.

Priti is now looking forward to resuming her pursuit of an advanced course in cosmetics. She has been following the doctor's orders — no make-up on her eyelids and wearing sunglasses to protect her eyes from the sun, dust and inadvertent injury.

Priti's smile reaches both her eyes as she says, "90% of my vision has now been restored…this is a blessing for me. You cannot tell which eye has received a graft, can you?" That's the best part: feeling as good as before, feeling as good as new.