AAO Best of the Show Award 2021

The American Academy of Ophthalmology honours clinician-scientist, Dr Muralidhar Ramappa, for his novel, innovative and path-breaking work titled ‘Selective Endotheliectomy in Peters Anomaly (SEPA)’ with the AAO Best of the Show Award 2021. This innovation was conceptualized and pioneered at LVPEI by Dr Ramappa along with other collaborators*

• Peters Anomaly (PA) is a rare eye disease in infants that causes corneal opacity (in the central part of the cornea) – leading to vision impairment
• In 60% of the cases, it occurs in both the eyes
• For the last four decades, visually significant PA was treated with penetrating keratoplasty (corneal transplant), where the outcomes are highly variable and often suboptimal in the long term; graft failure rates have been reported to be 50%-100% in ten years
• SEPA was successfully performed in 34 eyes of 28 children between 2014-2019
• The corneal opacity significantly regressed in 85% cases leading to significant improvement in vision
• It has proved to be a superior and safe alternative to corneal transplant in children with PA 

 *LVPEI clinicians and scientists, and collaborators from University of Illinois College of Medicine – Chicago, Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh & University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine