EyeWorld Asia-Pacific December 2021 Issue

CORNEA EWAP DECEMBER 2021 35 it was still adequate enough to provide care for anyone who needed care through that time.” Since then, demand has increased as better safety protocols were implemented, he said. “Of course, it’s hard to not provide care for such an extended time period because people who are suffering and not seeing well need their care.” At this point, Dr. Mian said there is a shortage of supply, even in the U.S. The U.S. is the largest provider of corneal tissue, he added. Nationally, looking at the EBAA data, it seems like there is still hesitancy for some patients to have surgery, Dr. Mian said, so the demand is at about 85 % of what it was prior to COVID-19. Overall, Dr. Mian said the shortage in tissue is most noticeable globally. Prior to COVID-19, there were 50,000– 55,000 corneal transplants per year. “The amount of tissue we could collect was about 85,000, so there was around 30,000 available to export,” Dr. Mian. “It’s drastically reduced globally to many parts of the world where they’re unable to have a good enough system to retrieve corneas on their own.” Looking forward Dr. Mian said that there are more studies in this area. “We’re continuing work to look at additional tissue,” he said] noting that his first study looked at around 130 donor tissue samples. “We want to expand to look at more so we can better understand how much tissue involvement there is because perhaps if we have enough data, we can say just because someone is exposed doesn’t automatically mean they can’t be a donor.” That might improve the ability to supply healthy donor tissue to those who need it. “We’re looking at testing more so we can understand the prevalence better, as well as more safely identify donors who can help recipients,” Dr. Mian. He added that it’s also important to look at how these numbers are impacting overall supply and demand in the U.S. and if there are certain demographics that are impacted more. EWAP References 1. Sawant OB, et al. Prevalence of SARS- CoV-2 in human post-mortem ocular tissues. Ocul Surf. 2021;19:322–329. 2. Aldave AJ, et al. COVID and the cornea: From controversies to consensus: Report of the Eye Bank Association of America Medical Advisory Board Policy and Position Review Subcommittee. Cornea . 2021;40:809–816. Editors’ note: Dr. Aldave is Professor of Ophthalmology, Stein Eye Institute, Los Angeles, California. Dr. Khandelwal is Associate Professor of Ophthalmology, Cullen Eye Institute, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas. Dr. Mian is Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Kellogg Eye Center, Ann Arbor, Michigan. None declared any relevant financial interests° The Next Generation NEW Pentacam ® AXL Wave The first device to combine Scheimpflug Tomography with Axial Length + Total Wavefront + Refraction + Retroillumination The new Pentacam ® AXL Wave is a reliable partner for your refractive and cataract practice, creating the best prerequisites for surgery, based on pre-op metrics, and providing post-op measurements for reliable monitoring, in just one device ! With high-end hardware and software for optimum treatment and satisfied patients, the new Pentacam ® AXL Wave makes no compromises on quality. OCULUS Asia Ltd. Hong Kong pentacam.com/axl-wave • info@oculus.hk ASCRS Eyeworld Pentacam AXL Wave 254x107.95 e 04.21.indd 1 26.04.2021 18:13:19